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IRELAND 


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EDITED    BY    G.    W.    PROTHERO,    LiTT.D. 

FELLOW    OF   king's   COLLEGE,    CAMBRIDGE, 
AND   PROFESSOR  OF  HISTORY   IN  THE   UNIVERSITY  OF  EDINBURGH. 


IRELAND. 


aoution:    C.  J.  CLAY  and  SONS, 
CAMBRIDGE    UNIVERSITY   PRESS   WAREHOUSE, 

AVE   MARIA   LANE. 
ffilasfiotu:   263,  ARGYLE  STREET. 


iLeipjig:    F.  A.   BROCKHAUS. 

i^£iM  iiork:   THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY. 

aUomtiau:    E.    SEYMOUR    HALE. 


IRELAND 

1494— 1868 


WITH 

TWO    INTRODUCTORY    CHAPTERS 


BY 


WILLIAM    O'CONNOR    MORRIS. 

COUNTY   COURT  JUDGE   OF   THE    UNITED   COUNTIES   OF 

ROSCOMMON    AND   SLIGO,    AND 

SOMETIME   SCHOLAR    OF   ORIEL   COLLEGE,    OXFORD. 


STEREOTYPED    EDITION. 


CAMBRIDGE; 
AT    THE    UNIVERSITY    PRESS. 

1898 

[All  Rights  reserved."] 


EDITOR'S    PREFACE. 

The  aim  of  this  series  is  to  sketch  the  history  of  Modern 
Europe,  with  that  of  its  chief  colonies  and  conquests^  from  about 
the  end  of  the  fifteeiith  century  doivn  to  the  present  time.  In  one 
or  two  cases  the  story  will  conwience  at  an  earlier  date,  but  this 
will  only  be  by  zvay  of  introduction.  Ifi  the  case  of  the  colonies 
it  will  naturally  begin  later.  The  histories  of  the  different 
comitries  will  be  described,  as  a  general  rule,  in  separate  volumes, 
for  it  is  believed  that,  except  in  epochs  like  that  of  the  French 
Revolution  and  Napoleon,  the  cotuiectiofi  of  eve?its  will  be  better 
understood  a?id  the  continuity  of  historical  develop?nent  more 
clearly  displayed  by  this  7nethod,  thati  by  any  other. 

The  series  is  inte7ided  for  the  use  of  all  perso7is  anxious  to 
understand  the  7iature  of  existing  political  conditions.  "  The  roots 
of  the  prese7it  lie  deep  i7i  the  past^^  and  the  real  significaiice  of 
conte77ip07-ary  ei'ents  ca7inot  be  grasped  unless  the  historical  causes 
which  have  led  to  them  are  know7i.  The  pla7i  of  the  series  will 
77take  it  possible  to  t7'eat  the  history  of  the  last  four  centuries  in 
C07isiderable  detail,  and  to  embody  the  most  i}7iporta7it  7-esults  of 
77iode7-7i  research.  It  is  hoped  the/-efore  that  the  fo7'thcoming 
vohwies  will  be  useful  not  07ily  to  begi7i7iers  but  to  stude7its  who 
have  ah'eady  acquired  so7ne  ge7ieral  knowledge  of  Eu)'opea7i  His- 
tory. For  those  who  wish  to  ca7-7y  their  studies  further,  the 
bibliography  appended  to  each  volu/7ie  will  act  as  a  guide  to  original 
sources  of  i7iformatio/i  and  ivorks  7nore  detailed  a7id  authoritative. 

Co7iside7-able  atte7itio7i  will  be  paid  to  geography,  and  each 
volu77ie  will  be  fu7'nished  with  such  7naps  and  pla7is  as  7nay  be 
7equisite  for  the  illustratio7i  of  the  text. 


First  Edition  i8y6 
Reprinted  1898 


^4429 


PREFACE. 

IT  is  hardly  correct  to  say  that  Irish  History  is  deficient 
in  dramatic  passages,  and  in  scenes  that  lend  them- 
selves to  picturesque  description.  A  Froissart  would  have 
given  life  and  beauty  to  the  exploits  of  many  of  the  Anglo- 
Norman  warriors ;  a  native  chronicler  of  poetic  genius  would 
have  made  the  deeds  of  more  than  one  of  the  Celtic  Princes, 
especially  of  Shane  O'Neill  and  of  the  illustrious  Tyrone,  shine 
out  in  brilliant  significance.  The  story  of  the  sieges  of 
Londonderry  and  of  Limerick,  and  of  the  battles  of  the  Boyne 
and  of  Aghrim  has  been  told  by  eminent  writers ;  but  these 
have  belonged  to  the  conquering  race ;  and  the  works  of 
writers  of  the  conquered  race  on  these  events  are  dull  and 
imperfect.  Irish  History  contains  episodes  that  a  Walter  Scott 
would  have  animated  and  made  striking ;  but  they  have  not 
been  treated  by  a  master  hand;  a  "vates  sacer"  has  not 
appeared  to  give  them  attractive  form  and  colouring. 

This  side,  however,  of  Irish  History  is  not  that  which 
possesses  the  greatest  interest.  The  march  of  Irish  affairs 
after  the  Anglo-Norman  conquest  has  been,  for  the  most 
part,  outside  the  great  movements  of  the  European  World; 
there  has  been  no  Irish  Bannockburn  and  no  Irish  Flodden; 
many  eminent  Irishmen  have  been  more  conspicuous  in 
foreign  lands  than  their  own.  Irish  History  is  most  valuable 
on  its  internal  side,  that  is,  as  it  unfolds  the  conditions 
and  circumstances  under  which  the  Irish  People  has  existed 
through  many  centuries,  and  has  become  what  it  is.  The 
story   to   a   superficial   mind   may   appear    "  a   tale   of  little 


vi  ^      Preface. 

meaning,"  a  wearisome  account  of  the  long  and  hopeless 
struggle  of  a  weak  dependency  with  an  infinitely  more  powerful 
nation  and  state.  But  the  series  of  events  which  constitutes 
Irish  History  is  of  no  ordinary  interest  to  the  true  historical 
student  and  to  thinkers  and  statesmen  worthy  of  the  name. 
The  annals  of  few  countries  so  clearly  illustrate  the  evident 
sequence  of  cause  and  effect  in  the  evolution  of  the  life  and 
the  fortunes  of  a  misruled,  backward,  and  most  ill  fated  com- 
munity. Irish  History,  especially  when  contrasted  with  that 
of  England,  shows  most  strikingly  how  calamitous  were  the 
effects,  in  the  Middle  Ages,  of  the  complete  absence  of  a 
strong  monarchy  and  a  strong  central  government  from  a  land 
abandoned  to  feudal  oppression  and  to  Celtic  tribal  disorder 
and  discord.  It  shows  very  plainly  how  ill  it  may  be  when  a 
people  much  superior  in  civilisation  and  wealth  tries  to  rule 
a  people  inferior  in  these  respects ;  how  misconceptions  and 
fatal  mistakes  may  follow ;  how  efforts  to  extend  the  domain 
of  good  government  may  lead  to  gross  and  far-spreading 
injustice.  It  illustrates  only  too  vividly  how  terrible  may  be 
the  results  of  conquest  carried  out  piecemeal,  through  long 
spaces  of  time,  and  of  wholesale  confiscation  following  in  its 
train ;  and  it  signally  proves  how  dreadful  may  be  the  issue  of 
conflicts  in  which  a  feeble  subject  race  defies  the  power  of  a 
great  ruling  State,  in  times  of  fierce  religious  and  national 
passion.  It  indicates,  on  the  other  hand,  how  infatuated  are 
attempts  such  as  these ;  especially  when  the  weaker  people  is 
torn  by  intestine  broils  and  divisions,  and,  while  it  beards  an 
enemy  tenfold  in  strength,  throws  its  chances  away  in  its 
insensate  quarrels.  Irish  History  places  in  the  fullest  light  the 
evils  of  wrong  done  in  the  name  of  religion  ;  of  a  system  of 
government  framed  on  the  principle  of  the  ascendency  of  a 
mere  sect ;  of  society  formed,  in  all  its  parts,  on  the  domination 
of  a  small  caste,  and  on  the  denial  of  right  to  a  conquered 
people  ;  of  the  divisions  of  race  and  faith  rending  a  community 


Preface.  vii 

in  twain,  and  forbidding  the  fusion  of  classes  kept  apart,  and 
of  commercial  restrictions  of  extreme  harshness ;  and  it  teaches 
a  whole  series  of  economic  lessons,  throughout  its  long  course, 
of  the  greatest  value.  It  must  be  added  that  it  bears  witness 
to  the  truth,  that  it  is  difficult  for  a  Teutonic  people  to  manage, 
or  even  to  understand,  a  Celtic,  particularly  when  the  latter  is 
on  a  plane  of  life,  usages,  and  habits  completely  different ;  and 
that  British  policy  for  Ireland,  however  well-meaning,  has  often 
been  mistaken,  owing  to  sheer  ignorance,  and  has  been  re- 
peatedly and  most  unfortunately  too  late,  even  in  its  best  and 
wisest  remedial  measures. 

The  History  of  Ireland,  besides,  if  I  do  not  err,  is  deeply 
interesting  for  another  general  reason.  Philosophy  attests  the 
moral  government  of  the  Universe,  and  rightly  asserts  the 
freedom  of  the  will  of  man.  But  History  recognises  and  teaches 
how  immense  is  the  power  of  circumstance  in  shaping  the 
fortunes  of  states  and  nations ;  and  points  out  that  these 
repeatedly  have  seemed  to  depend  on  what  we  in  our 
ignorance  call  accidents.  This  has  especially  been  the  case 
in  the  course  of  the  affairs  of  Ireland;  and  it  cannot  fail  to 
attract  the  attention  of  a  thoughtful  mind.  Over  and  over, 
again  it  has  seemed  as  if  Irish  History  would  have  been  com- 
pletely changed,  with  happy  results,  but  for  slight  incidents 
that  appear  but  the  freaks  of  Fortune.  To  refer  to  a  few 
instances  only — how  different  it  would  have  been  if  Henry  of 
Anjou  had  not  turned  aside  from  the  conquest  in  his  power ; 
had  Edward  I  done  for  Ireland  what  he  did  for  Wales;  had 
Henry  VIII  lived  a  few  years  longer,  had  William  III  been 
true  to  his  nature  in  the  affair  of  the  Treaty  of  Limerick; 
had  not  Lord  Fitzwilliam  been  recalled  by  a  petty  intrigue; 
had  Pitt,  on  the  occasion  of  the  Union,  compelled  George  III 
to  bow  to  his  will,  as  he  had  compelled  him  before;  had 
Catholic  Emnncipation  been  accomplished  with  "the  wings" 
in   1825  !     In  these,   and  many  other  important  passages  of 


viii  Preface. 

Irish  History,  circumstance,  that  seems  ahnost  fortuitous,  has 
played  a  decisive  and  an  adverse  part ;  and  a  kind  of  dark 
and  mournful  fatality,  like  the  song  of  the  chorus  in  the  Greek 
Drama,  appears  to  play  over  a  protracted  and  unhappy 
tragedy.  This  is  given  to  us  as  an  ensample,  and  affords 
matter  for  reflection. 

I  have  written  this  work  on  Irish  History  with  a  reference 
to  these  leading  ideas  and  from  these  points  of  view.  I  have, 
I  hope,  composed  the  narrative  in  the  spirit  in  which  every 
narrative  of  the  kind  should  be  composed.  I  have  endeavoured 
to  trace  the  causes  of  events,  to  show  their  connection  and 
relations,  to  tell  the  truth  fearlessly,  to  be  strictly  impartial, 
and  yet  always  to  make  allowance  for  the  stress  of  circum- 
stance, and  for  the  frailties,  the  passions,  and  the  ignorance 
of  humanity.  I  shall  have  gained  my  object  if  I  shall  have 
directed  the  attention  of  thoughtful  minds  in  Great  Britain  and 
Ireland  to  Irish  History.  The  subject,  for  various  reasons,  is 
of  supreme  importance  to  the  people  of  both  countries. 

As  I  liave  been  confined  within  rather  narrow  limits  of 
space,  I  have  been  obliged  to  be  chary  of  notes.  I  have 
enumerated  in  the  Appendix  the  authorities,  to  which  the 
reader  may  be  referred.  Those  which  seem  to  me  of  special 
value  are  printed  in  italics. 

I  have  to  thank  Professor  G.  W.  Prothero  for  his  ad- 
mirable skill  and  care  in  editing  this  book,  and  also  the 
Treasurer  and  Librarian  of  the  King's  Inns,  Dublin,  for  much 
valuable  information. 

WILLIAM   O'CONNOR  MORRIS. 


Gartnamona,  Tullamore. 
December  lyth,  1895. 


TABLE   OF   CONTENTS. 


PAGE 


Chapter    I. 
II. 


»» 


>> 


III. 


5  > 


»» 


Ireland  before  the  Anglo-Norman  Con- 
quest          

The  Anglo-Norman  Conquest  of  Ire- 
land. State  of  the  Country  from 
the  Reign  of  Henry  II  to  that  of 
Henry  VII 

Ireland  during  the    Tudor    Period   to 

THE     end     of     the     REIGN      OF     HENRY 

VIII 


IV.      Ireland   to   the   end  of  the  Reign    of 
Elizabeth 

V.  From  the  Death  of  Elizabeth  to  the 
Restoration 

VI.  From  the  Restoration  to   the   Capitu 
LATioN  OF  Limerick 

VII.  The  Period  of  the  Penal  Laws  in  Ire 

LAND.    The  Revolution  of  1782. 

„    VIII.     Grattan's   Parliament.     The   Rebellion 
of  1798.     The  Union 

J,      IX.      From   the   Union    to   Catholic    Emanci 
PATION 


»» 


X.       From  1829  to  186S 


24 

59 

83 

122 

163 

197 

249 

289 
316 


APPENDIX. 


List  of  Authorities    . 


Index 


355 


366 


Map  of  Ireland  . 


at  end 


IRELAND. 


CHAPTER    I. 

IRELAND   BEFORE   THE  ANGLO-NORMAN    CONQUEST. 

Prehistoric  Ireland.  The  Milesian  conquerors.  The  Irish  an  Aryan 
Celtic  race.  Pagan  Ireland.  The  island  cut  off  from  the  Empire. 
First  traces  of  Irish  history.  The  mission  of  Patrick  and  its  results. 
Ireland  little  affected  by  the  consequences  of  the  barbarian  conquests 
and  the  fall  of  Rome.  Splendid  achievements  of  the  Early  Irish 
Church.  State  of  society  in  Ireland  before  subsequent  invasion  and 
conquest.  The  Monarchy.  The  inferior  kings.  The  chiefs  and  other 
orders.  The  tribes,  clans  and  septs.  The  settlement  of  the  land. 
The  Church.  The  organisation  and  features  of  society.  The  arts  of 
war  and  peace  in  Ireland.  The  Brehon  laws.  History.  Poetry.  Music. 
Architecture.  Sculpture.  The  characteristics  of  the  Irish.  The 
Danish  invasions.  Brian.  Decline  of  the  Monarchy,  and  of  civili- 
sation. Proximity  of  England  to  Ireland.  The  island  exposed  to 
Anglo-Norman  conquest. 

The  traces  are  faint  of  the  prehistoric  race  which  spread  over 
Ireland  in  remote  antiquity.  The  island  is  particularly  rich  in 
stone;  it  contains  numerous  Cyclopean  remains;  but  it  has 
nothing  like  Stonehenge  in  extent  and  grandeur.  Tradition 
indicates  that  it  was  peopled  from  the  East ;  the  Fomorians 
have  been  called  a  Turanian  tribe ;  the  Firbolgs  were  probably 

M.  I.  I 


2  Ireland.  [Chap. 

of  the  stem  of  the  Belgoe ;  the  Tuatha-na-Danaans,  "adepts 
in  Druidical  and  magical  rites  " — not  impossibly  a  sacerdotal 
caste — are  said  to  have  been  of  Pelasgic  origin.  The  evidence 
of  language,  however,  admirably  sifted  by  Zeuss,  proves  that 
the  main  body  of  the  Irish  people,  of  which  History  takes 
account,  Avas  an  Aryan  community  of  the  great  Celtic  stock, 
once  dominant  in  Britain,  in  Gaul,  in  Spain,  and  scattered  over 
other  parts  of  Europe.  It  seems  probable  that  it  belonged  to 
the  tribes  of  the  Gael  rather  than  of  the  Cynuy, — these  last 
perhaps  the  Cimmerii  of  Greek  story,  the  Cimbri,  at  one  time 
the  terror  of  Rome,  and  the  fathers,  almost  certainly,  of  the 
Celts  of  Wales.  A  migration  of  warlike  Celts  from  Spain, 
after  long  wanderings  through  the  Scythian  wastes,  overran 
Ireland  before  the  Christian  era;  the  Milesian  settlement 
seems  to  point  to  a  real  conquest.  Heber,  Heremon,  and  Ir, 
the  sons  of  Milesius,  are  as  mythical  perhaps  as  Romulus  and 
Remus,  as  Arthur  and  Modred,  as  Hengist  and  Horsa;  but 
the  families  of  the  leading  Irish  chiefiains,  tradition  affirms, 
sprang  from  their  loins ;  and  the  Milesians  seem  to  have  been 
an  aristocratic  order.  They  are  described  as  "  bold,  honour- 
able, daring,  prosperous,  bountiful,  and  not  afraid  of  battle  or 
combat." 

The  land  inhabited  by  the  Irish  race  is  widely  separated 
from  the  rest  of  Europe,  and  is  surrounded  by  Atlantic  waves 
and  tempests.  Phoenician  and  Spanish  traders  seem  to  have 
reached  its  shores,  as  far  back,  perhaps,  as  the  day  of 
Carthage ;  but  the  Celts  have  never  had  a  turn  for  the  sea ; 
and  Ireland  assuredly  was,  to  Roman  eyes,  even  more  cut  off 
from  the  world  than  Britain.  Ctesar  scarcely  alludes  to  the 
island  at  all ;  Agricola  thought  it  not  worth  invading,  though  a 
single  legion  and  a  few  auxiliaries  would,  in  his  judgment, 
have  made  the  conquest  certain.  The  Celts  of  Ireland  were 
left  to  themselves,  and  to  their  primitive  life  and  usages,  long 
after  Gaul  had  fallen  under  the  power  of  Rome,  Britain  had 


I.]  Ireland  before  the  Anglo-Norman  Conquest.         3 

known  the  presence  of  Roman  colonies,  and  the  Celt  of  the 
Iberian  Peninsula  had  felt  Roman  bondage.  They,  therefore, 
had  no  experience  or  taste  of  the  civilisation  that  followed  the 
march  of  the  legions;  and  the  peculiarities  of  the  land  they 
dwelt  in,  divided  by  forests  and  immense  peat-mosses,  swept 
by  torrents  of  rain  from  the  West,  and  with  a  climate,  then 
and  long  afterwards,  injurious  to  health,  would  naturally  have 
kept  them  in  a  state  of  backwardness.  Yet  in  the  first 
centuries  succeeding  the  birth  of  Christ,  we  perceive  in  Ireland, 
if,  no  doubt,  faintly,  the  image  of  an  Aryan  people  established 
everywhere,  and  possessing  the  characteristics  of  the  great 
Aryan  family.  A  dim  shadowy  monarchy  was  in  existence ; 
the  names  of  Conn  of  the  Hundred  Battles,  of  Feredach  the 
Just,  of  Felim  the  Lawgiver  show  that  Ireland  had  her  mythical 
TuUus,  and  her  mythical  Numa.  A  gradation  of  noble  orders 
appears,  in  which  probably  great  fighting  men,  Druids,  and 
poets  held  a  prominent  place;  and  traces  are  found  of  a 
growing  tribal  system.  Erinn  was  pagan,  and  given  to 
idolatry,  like  Paul's  Corinth,  but  its  paganism  seems  to  have 
been  more  akin  to  nature-worship  and  the  cult  of  the  Sun, 
than  to  the  horrid  superstitions  of  the  Cymric  race — half 
thralls  of  the  Druidic  priesthood — which  had  their  chief  seats 
in  Anglesea  and  in  parts  of  Gaul,  and  which  terrified  even  the 
trained  Roman  soldiery.  The  land  seems  to  have  been  not 
divided :  there  was  "  not  a  ditch,  nor  fence,  nor  a  stone  wall," 
ran  an  ancient  legend,  until  long  afterwards ;  and  the  popula- 
tion was,  probably,  still  largely  nomade.  But  agriculture,  and 
all  that  this  implies,  was  common  ;  parts  of  the  community 
were  certainly  seated  on  the  soil,  under  the  system  of  common 
ownership,  and  of  patriarchal  custom,  which  forms  a  distinctive 
mark  of  an  Aryan  race. 

Ireland  remained  completely  outside  the  track  of  the  first 
great  barbarian  invasions  of  the  Roman  Empire,  and  of  the 
influences  which  these  brought  with  them.     The  decline  of  the 


4  Ireland.  [Chap. 

Imperial  power  in  Britain  is  attested  by  a  raid  on  the  sea-board 
of  Wales  led  by  Niall  of  the  Nine  Hostages,  a  warrior  king  of  the 
great  Milesian  stock,  and  with  difficulty  repelled  by  Stilicho,  the 
conqueror  of  Alaric,  and  the  friend  of  Claudian.  "The  ocean 
foamed  with  the  oars  of  the  Scots,"  the  poet  wrote  ;  this  was 
perhaps  the  first  instance  of  the  descents  of  the  Pictish  and 
Scottish  races  on  the  decaying  settlements  of  Roman  Britain. 
The  embryo  kingship  of  Ireland  was  held  by  the  Hy-Niall — 
the  fathers  of  the  O'Neills  of  History,  the  most  illustrious  of 
the  Irish  chiefs — for  a  period  of  nearly  five  hundred  years; 
and,  doubtless,  as  nomade  life  disappeared,  the  archaic  organi- 
sation of  the  Aryan  races  developed  itself  more  thoroughly  on 
the  land,  in  the  village  community,  the  sept,  and  the  clan. 
But,  as  has  always  been  the  case  with  Aryan  peoples,  in  certain 
stages  of  their  growth  and  progress,  and  has  been  especially 
the  case  with  the  Celt,  Ireland  was  a  land  of  incessant  strife 
and  war;  like  the  Hindoos,  the  Hellenes,  the  Latins,  the 
Teutons,  the  Irish  Celts  were  in  a  state  of  perpetual  tribal 
discord.  Light  breaks  first  on  Ireland  in  the  fifth  century, 
when  this  chaos  of  rude  and  wild  heathendom  was  gradually 
made  a  Christian  body  of  men  united  in  some  measure  by  a 
living  and  common  faith.  Patrick  is  a  grand  historical  figure, 
surrounded  as  he  is  by  a  halo  of  legends ;  the  success  of  his 
mission  was  decisive  and  complete.  Irish  Paganism,  possibly 
for  some  time  in  decline,  yielded  rapidly  to  the  influence  of  the 
Saint  \  "the  lights  of  the  Druids  were  quenched  and  their  spells 
were  broken";  the  pagan  chiefs  bowed  before  the  man  of 
God ;  not  impossibly  what  was  worst  in  Irish  pagan  usages — 
still  conspicuous  in  ancient  Indian  law — was  swept  away  by 
his  amending  hand.  And  Patrick  was  the  founder  of  that 
noble  Church,  which  from  Ireland  sent  the  everlasting  light 
through  a  world  convulsed  by  the  death-throes  of  Rome,  and 
overspread,  for  ages,  by  ever  increasing  gloom. 

We  leap  over  four  stormy  centuries,  in  which  the  mould  of 


I.]         Ireland  before  the  Anglo-Norman  Conquest,         5 

modern  Europe  was  cast,  in  the  fusion  of  barbarism  and  the 
wreck  of  the  Empire.  Fierce  and  wild  races  from  the  deserts 
of  the  East  poured  over  the  provinces  of  that  Imperial  state, 
which  for  centuries  had  held  the  world  at  peace,  and  had  been 
deemed  eternal  in  its  majestic  structure.  Rome  was  sacked 
over  and  over  again  ;  the  new  Rome  on  the  shores  of  the 
Bosporus  was  threatened  by  conquering  Semite  hordes ; 
Attila  and  his  Huns  were,  with  difiiculty,  expelled  from  Gaul ; 
Charles  of  the  Hammer  just  saved  the  West  from  the  arms  of 
the  Saracen.  Meanwhile  the  Teuton  had  founded  settlements 
in  Italy,  in  France,  in  Spain,  and  in  England,  destined  to 
become  the  beginnings  of  mighty  kingdoms ;  and  at  last  the 
genius  of  Charles  the  Great  constructed  a  new  Empire  in  the 
midst  of  the  Continent,  extending  from  the  Elbe  to  the  Ebro  ; 
and  this,  though  girt  round  by  still  untamed  tribes,  was  to  be 
the  fruitful  germ  of  the  civilisation  yet  to  come.  To  this 
source  we  may  largely  ascribe  monarchic  government,  the 
feudal  system,  the  medieval  Church,  the  conception  of  the 
state,  and  the  organisation  of  the  land  in  Europe ;  the  arrange- 
ment everywhere  bearing  the  mark  of  rude  and  general  conquest, 
and  of  the  ideas  of  Rome,  blending  with  those  of  the  old 
Aryan  communities.  As  had  been  the  case  before,  Ireland  was 
not  affected  directly  by  these  stirrings  of  the  world,  and  by  the 
immense  consequences  following  in  their  train,  though  in- 
directly she  had  a  part  in  them.  She  continued  isolated,  to  a 
great  extent,  so  far  as  regards  her  secular  life,  her  political 
existence,  and  her  social  usages.  The  loose  supremacy  of  the 
Hy-Nialls  went  on ;  but  it  does  not  seem  to  have  acquired 
strength,  or  to  have  possessed  the  character  of  a  real  Monarchy. 
The  country  fell  under  the  rule  of  four  or  five  houses  of 
chiefs,  lords  of  dominant  and  powerful  tribes,  which  had  more 
or  less  subdued  the  inferior  septs  and  clans;  and  these  were 
nearly  always  at  feud  with  one  another.  The  peculiar 
organisation  of  the  land  had  become,  doubtless,  less  arcliaic 


6  Ireland.  [Chap. 

than  it  had  been ;  collective  ownership,  the  growth  of  the 
patriarchal  idea,  extremely  strong  in  the  Aryan  races,  still 
prevailed,  but  had  become  less  general ;  agriculture  had 
created  separate  ownership,  and  that  to  a  very  great  extent; 
and  the  chiefs  of  the  different  tribes,  septs,  and  clans,  had 
gained  increased  power,  and  enlarged  landed  possessions,  by 
processes  curiously  like  those  of  the  feudal  system. 

But  if  the  History  of  Ireland,  in  those  ages,  does  not,  for 
causes  plainly  to  be  traced,  show  much  political  or  social 
growth,  it  discloses  one  of  the  grandest  and  most  remarkable 
religious  movements  the  world  has  beheld.  St  Patrick,  we 
have  seen,  made  Ireland  Christian ;  the  island,  enclosed  by  the 
great  sea  of  the  West,  was  beyond  the  sphere  of  the  gigantic 
movements  which,  north,  east,  south,  and  west,  overthrew  the 
Empire.  The  intellect,  too,  of  the  Irish,  like  that  of  all  Celts, 
is  keen,  vivid,  and  especially  skilled  in  communicating  its  ideas 
wherever  it  extends  ;  and  the  Irish  and  Celtic  nature  is  strongly 
emotional,  and  vehement  in  its  enthusiastic  fervour.  These 
facts  explain  the  astonishing  part  Ireland  played  in  the  ex- 
tension of  the  Christian  faith,  from  the  sixth  until  nearly  the 
tenth  century.  Torn  as  the  land  was  by  intestine  broils,  the 
Church  maintained  a  vigorous  life  of  its  own;  it  had  its  scores 
of  bishops,  a  great  array  of  clergy,  hundreds  of  holy  men  in  its 
religious  orders ;  its  monasteries,  schools,  and  colleges  were 
many  and  flourishing.  Learning  and  piety  spread  from  these 
centres  of  light  happily  not  disturbed  by  the  shock  of  falling 
Rome;  Ireland  became  a  seat  of  Christianity  of  a  peculiar 
type ;  and  she  diffused  the  sacred  influence  over  many  lands, 
doing  great  things  to  uphold  Christendom,  and  to  preserve  the 
Word  in  the  ages  of  barbarian  conquest.  This,  indeed,  was 
the  most  glorious  work  of  the  Early  Irish  Church,  a  "lasting 
possession  "  for  the  family  of  man.  The  zeal  of  Columba  and 
his  successors  raised  the  lamp  of  life  on  the  shores  of  lona, 
and  sent  its  rays  over  heathen  Scotland.     It  burned  in  the 


I.]         Ireland  before  the  Anglo-Norman  Conqnest.         y 

Holy  Isle  of  Lindisfarne;  the  Saxons  of  Northumbria  felt  its  In- 
fluence, soon  after  Augustine  had  landed  on  the  plains  of  Kent. 
Irish  missionaries  preached  in  Wales,  and  beyond  the  Severn ; 
their  glory  shone  in  many  lands  of  the  Continent.  Their 
voices  were  heard  along  the  Jura;  in  the  Alpine  ranges  of  wild 
Switzerland ;  beside  the  banks  of  the  Maine  and  the  Rhine ; 
telling  the  tidings  of  great  joy  to  savage  conquerors,  who  still 
bowed  down  before  Thor  and  Woden.  It  is  a  most  significant 
fact  that  Charles  the  Great — the  embodiment  of  civilisation  in 
his  age — had  a  singular  esteem  for  holy  men  from  Ireland ; 
they  were  often  guests  at  his  Imperial  table.  And  as  Ireland 
sent  forth  her  teachers  of  the  Faith,  so  she  received  within  her 
borders  thousands  of  Christians  flying  from  the  savagery  and 
turmoil  of  the  dying  Roman  world.  Merovingian  kings  found 
a  home  in  Ireland ;  monks,  bishops,  and  priests  sought  a 
peaceful  refuge  from  lands  watered  by  the  Nile,  the  Seine, 
and  the  Danube,  in  the  crypts  of  Armagh,  and  where  the 
Shannon  flows  beside  the  lonely  churches  of  Clonmacnoise. 

We  may  now  glance  at  the  state  of  primitive  Ireland,  at  her 
institutions,  her  social  structure  and  her  laws,  and  at  the 
progress  she  had  made  in  the  arts  of  life,  before  she  felt  the 
effects  of  invasion  and  conquest,  that  is,  after  the  beginning  of 
the  ninth  century.  The  ideas  that  were  to  prevail  in  most  parts 
of  Europe,  and  that  flowed  largely  from  barbarian  dominion, 
mingling  with  the  influences  of  Imperial  Rome,  had  not  had 
much  power  over  her  people,  because  she  had  been  little  in 
contact  with  them.  The  conceptions  of  monarchy,  with  a 
strong  central  government,  of  a  church  modelled  on  the  Roman 
type,  of  aristocracy  strictly  ordered,  of  assemblies  which  were  to 
enact  laws,  of  land  stamped  with  the  feudal  system,  of  cities 
with  municipal  rights — the  conceptions,  in  a  word,  that  appear 
in  the  medieval  state,  were  not  in  existence  or  were  very  weak, 
for  Ireland  had  been  nearly  a  stranger  to  them.  Ireland, 
nevertheless,   presented    the   image  of  an  Aryan  community, 


8  Ireland.  [Chap. 

as  yet  backward,  but  progressing  to  a  state  of  higher  develope- 
ment.  A  monarchy  existed,  and  though  in  name  elective,  it 
had  become  hereditary  in  the  Hy-Niall  Hne,  as  the  Empire 
was  in  the  House  of  Austria.  The  monarch  had  Uttle 
sovereign  power;  he  was  not,  in  any  sense,  the  Head  of  a 
state ;  he  had  no  ParHament,  no  Army,  no  Courts  of  Justice. 
But  he  was  the  acknowledged  superior  of  every  other  chief;  he 
seems  to  have  had  a  right  to  demand  their  services,  and  the 
armed  forces  of  their  tribes  in  time  of  war ;  he  had  a  claim  to 
something  resembling  a  national  tribute.  He  had  a  Court,  and 
all  that  pertained  to  it ;  a  nobility  like  the  feudal  Companions ; 
a  retinue  of  Bards  and  Judges  of  high  degree ;  and  he  perhaps 
assembled  the  chief  men  of  Ireland,  and  possibly  representatives 
of  the  different  tribes,  at  Tara,  the  place  of  royal  gatherings. 
He  was  regularly  crowned  with  solemn  rites;  his  coronation 
had  much  in  common  with  the  coronations  of  the  German 
Caesars.  The  King  of  Ireland  received  the  crown,  after 
religious  ceremonies,  august  and  striking ;  in  the  presence 
"of  the  Princes  of  the  Land,"  of  "the  Bishops,"  of  the  "free 
states,"  and  possibly  of  men  chosen  from  the  people  \ 

Four  or  five  lesser  kings  held  the  chief  rule  in  Ireland, 
under  their  suzerain,  the  supreme  Monarch.  These  were  the 
heads  of  the  most  powerful  tribes,  which  gradually  had  become 
dominant ;  they  were  akin  to  the  great  sovereign  nobles  of 
France,  and  to  the  Princes  of  Imperial  Germany,  dependent 
in  name,  but  in  their  own  "countries"  rulers.  Their  state 
resembled  that  of  their  overlord ;  they  had  their  Courts,  their 
noblesse,  and  their  bands  of  retainers ;  they  exercised  authority 
over  inferior  chiefs ;  they  commanded  the  forces  of  the  leading 
tribes,  and  of  the  communities  included  in  them ;  and  their 
influence  had  been  for  ages  increasing.     Their  kingship,  too, 

^  See  a  most  interesting  account  of  the  coronation  of  a  king  of 
Connaught  in  the  thirteenth  century,  in  llie  O' Conors  of  Coniiaught^ 
83  seq. 


I.]         Ireland  before  the  Anglo-Norman  Conquest.         g 

ran  in  the  royal  lines,  if  subject  to  a  kind  of  election ;  the 
Tanist,  the  successor  of  the  dead  king,  was  not  necessarily  his 
direct  heir,  though,  in  all  instances,  of  his  blood ;  he  was 
sometimes  really  chosen  by  the  tribe;  and  this  mode  of 
succession,  which  seemed  so  barbarous  to  Tudor  lawyers,  was 
in  truth  akin  to  many  successions  in  medieval  monarchies, 
and  possibly  is  a  source  from  which  primogeniture  arose. 
These  lesser  kings  probably  had  the  chief  power  in  Ireland; 
like  the  great  lords  and  princes  of  the  Middle  Ages  they  kept 
the  land  in  a  state  of  petty  war  and  trouble.  Beneath  these 
kings  were  the  minor  chiefs,  masters  of  subject  tribes,  clans, 
and  the  lowest  units,  the  septs ;  their  condition  doubtless  in 
some  respects  resembled  that  of  their  immediate  superiors. 
But  they  were  bound  to  them  by  many  ties  of  dependence, 
analogous  to  those  of  the  feudal  system;  and  while  their 
influence  over  the  classes  below  them  was  growing,  they  were 
falling  more  and  more  under  the  control  of  the  kings.  The 
chiefs  of  the  septs  seem  to  have  widely  differed  in  many  points 
from  the  other  chiefs ;  the  succession  to  their  lands  at  least — 
though  this  is  a  difficult  subject — was  difterent  from  that  of  the 
acknowledged  kings.  It  was  more  archaic,  and  bore  the  trace 
of  the  patriarchal  idea  of  the  Aryan  family ;  but  it  was  a  mode 
of  succession  like  that  of  the  Gavelkind  of  Kent,  though 
denounced  as  "sluttish  and  lewd"  by  the  Cokes  and  the  I?.^ 
Spensers. 

Under  the  chiefs,  high  and  low,  there  seems  to  have  been 
a  local  aristocracy  of  some  kind,  differing  from  the  personal 
noblesse  of  the  kings.  The  position  of  this  order  is,  however, 
obscure;  it  may  have  had  something  in  common  with  the 
Anglo-Saxon  freeholder.  There  was  a  series  of  classes  of 
inferior  grade,  but  separated  by  well  marked  distinctions; 
they  corresponded  in  some  respects  to  the  free  tenants,  the 
villeins,  and  the  serfs  of  the  feudal  manor.  These  orders  of 
men  were   dependent   on   the   chief,   his   vassals,  in   fact,   in 


lO  Ireland.  [Chap. 

different  degrees ;  they  owed  him  allegiance,  and  probably 
supplied  a  large  part  of  his  forces  in  war.  But  the  Ceile  of 
substance,  with  herds  of  his  own,  was  in  a  far  better  position, 
and  more  free,  than  the  Saer  stock  or  the  Daer  stock  tenants, 
kept  in  subjection,  though  not  to  the  same  extent,  by  loans  of 
cattle  from  the  chief,  which  made  them  his  debtors,  as  in  the 
case  of  the  Plebeians  and  Patricians  of  Rome.  The  subjection 
was  in  proportion  to  the  amount  of  the  debt,  but  these  various 
classes,  holding  land,  as  they  did,  with  concurrent  rights  in  it,  as 
joint  owners,  were  liable,  it  would  appear,  "to  a  just  rent "  only, 
though  the  chief's  power  over  them  had  long  been  growing. 
Outside  the  pale  of  these  were  the  Fuidhir  tenants,  composed 
largely  of  broken  men,  of  captives  in  war,  and  of  landless 
outcasts ;  these  were  also  followers  of  the  chief  in  battle ;  and 
they  were  bound  to  all  kinds  of  degrading  services.  The  chiefs 
multiplied  this  class  by  a  variety  of  means,  for  this  tended  to 
augment  their  influence ;  they  had  a  right  to  quarter  retainers 
on  them,  "the  coyne  and  livery"  of  another  day;  and  they  seem 
to  have  had  a  free  hand  to  oppress  them.  The  Fuidhir  had 
no  protection  against  "a  rackrent,"  or  indeed  against  any 
kind  of  exaction ;  his  lot  was,  doubtless,  miserable  and  hard. 
But  Tudor  lawyers  and  many  writers  are  wholly  in  error,  when 
they  confound  the  free  and  other  tenants  of  the  Irish  chief, 
with  the  order  of  the  despised  Fuidhirs,  and  describe  the  chief  as 
simply  a  cruel  lord  of  down-trodden  serfs ;  the  assertion  is  not 
only  false,  but  absurd.  Beside  the  land-holding  classes,  there 
were  classes  of  slaves,  the  lowest  certainly  in  the  social  scale ; 
and  as  the  towns  were  very  few  and  small,  an  urban  population 
scarcely  existed. 

This  organisation  of  society — still  archaic  but  presenting 
features  like  those  of  feudalism — as  in  the  case  of  all  Aryan 
races,  had  stamped  its  peculiar  character  on  the  land,  on  which 
it  had  been  established  for  ages.  The  Monarch,  the  lesser 
kings,  and  perhaps  all  the  chiefs,  had  appropriated  large  tracts 


I.]         Ireland  before  the  A^iglo-Norman  Conquest.       1 1 

of  land  in  demesne  which  they  certainly  held  as  separate 
owners ;  and  besides  the  tribute  due  to  the  supreme  suzerain, 
the  inferior  rulers  were  entitled  to  different  kinds  of  renders, 
within  the  hmits  of  the  lands  of  which  they  were  the  heads. 
Ireland  as  a  whole  was  not  thought  of  as  a  common  country — 
the  idea  at  least  was  very  feeble — the  great  tribes  were  the 
main  political  units;  and  beneath  these,  and  forming  part  of 
them,  were  the  inferior  tribes,  the  clans,  and  the  septs, 
possessing  landed  usages  in  some  respects  the  same,  in  others 
very  different.  Even  the  great  tribes  were  still  known 
by  the  name  of  Families,  a  sign  of  the  force  of  the  old 
patriarchal  idea ;  their  rulers  were,  or  were  believed  to  be,  of 
the  blood  of  an  heroic  common  ancestor ;  the  whole  tribe  was 
connected  in  some  sense  by  this  tie  ;  and  the  land  of  the 
tribe  was  by  tradition  its  common  property.  But  these  con- 
ceptions had,  to  a  great  extent,  died  out ;  the  heads  of  the 
tribes  may  have  had  the  descent  claimed ;  but  the  tribes 
included,  we  have  seen,  inferior  units,  which  certainly  had  not 
a  common  origin ;  in  the  tribe,  and  in  these,  the  land  was  held 
for  the  most  part,  perhaps,  in  separate  ownership ;  this 
tendency  was  ever  on  the  increase ;  and  the  notion  that 
the  tribe  lands  were  subject  to  collective  rights,  was  prob- 
ably, as  a  usage,  waning  away.  This  process  was  going  on 
through  the  lower  tribes  and  clans,  "and  even  down  to  the 
smallest  division,  the  sept;  separate  ownership  of  the  land 
was  always  extending;  "the  primitive  communism"  of  the 
land  was  passing  away.  In  the  sept,  however,  the  least 
developed  unit,  the  family  idea  was  still  potent,  and  with 
this  the  notion  of  common  property  in  the  land.  The  lands 
of  the  chief  of  a  sept,  we  have  seen,  were  divided  by  a  process 
akin  to  Gavelkind.  On  the  death  of  a  member  of  a  sept,  a 
somewhat  similar  mode  of  succession — though  probably  only 
one  of  several  modes — was  adopted,  the  chief,  it  is  alleged,  dis- 
tributing the  lands  among  the  remaining  members,  the  nearest 


12  Ireland.  [Chap. 

in  blood  to  the  supposed  common  ancestor.  The  family  idea, 
too,  made  artificial  ties  nearly  as  strong  as  natural  in  the 
ancient  Irish  household.  The  foster  child  was  as  much 
loved  as  the  child  by  parentage,  the  godson  as  the  son  by 
blood,  these  usages,  too,  seeming  odious  to  Tudor  lawyers, 
who  could  not  ascend  to  their  true  sources. 

The  primitive  Church  in  Ireland,  as  in  other  countries,  was 
largely  moulded  on  the  type  of  existing  society.  The  Medieval 
Church  in  nine-tenths  of  Europe  "reared  its  mitred  front"  in 
feudal  Assemblies;  it  had  its  Sovereign  Bishops  in  Germany; 
in  England  its  Anselms,  Beckets,  and  Huberts;  its  Bishops  of 
Toulouse  and  Toledo  in  France  and  Spain.  The  ancient  Irish 
Church  was  fashioned  on  the  tribal  system ;  the  Bishops  seem 
to  have  been  as  numerous  as  were  the  lesser  tribes ;  they  were, 
in  some  measure,  perhaps,  appointed  by  the  chiefs;  they  were 
very  often  selected  from  chieftains'  families.  The  Irish  Church, 
too,  like  Ireland,  was  far  away  from  Rome;  in  its  usages  and 
ritual,  perhaps  in  its  sacramental  doctrines,  it  differed  widely 
from  that  Imperial  Church  which  aspired  to  supremacy  through- 
out Christendom.  In  the  observance  of  Easter,  in  the  garb  of 
its  priesthood,  in  the  arrangements  about  tithe,  in  its  spiritual  life, 
'  it  was  regarded  as  almost  schismatic  at  Rome,  a  thing  external 
to  the  true  Roman  communion.  It  was  severely  condemned  by 
orthodox  servants  of  ambitious  pontiffs  as  rude  and  barbarous, 
as  constructed  upon  a  bad  pattern,  as  full  of  enormities 
of  many  kinds ;  and  probably  its  organisation  was  weak, 
its  discipline  somewhat  lax  and  imperfect,  its  influence  less 
than  it  ought  to  have  been  in  a  land  torn  by  perennial  dis- 
cords. Its  greatness  is  most  apparent  in  its  heroic  missions ; 
yet  it  had  a  zealous  and  numerous  priesthood  at  home ;  and 
theological  hatred  was  in  excess,  when  St  Bernard  described 
the  ancient  Irish  Church  as  *'a  society  that  had  little  hold  on  a 
people  disorderly  in  worship,  impious  in  creed,  Christians  in 
name,  pagans  indeed."     In  one  respect,  however,  this  Church 


I.]         Ireland  before  the  Anglo-Norman  Conquest.        13 

seems  to  have  been  less  successful  in  its  work  than  might  have 
been  supposed.  Sexual  licence  and  impurity  have  usually 
been  a  characteristic  defect  in  the  Celtic  races,  they  have 
darkened  the  course  of  French  History.  They  appear  to  have 
been  marked  vices  of  the  old  Irish  tribes,  and  the  Church 
made  very  little  impression  on  them.  It  has  been  the  glory  r. 
of  the  clergy  of  a  later  time,  to  have  freed  Ireland  from  this 
reproach  to  a  remarkable  extent. 

At  this  period  therefore,  Ireland,  we  repeat,  was  an  Aryan 
people  of  a  somewhat  archaic  type,  yet,  unquestionably,  in  a 
state  of  progress,  and  though  differing  from  the  communities 
of  the  greater  part  of  Europe,  now  beginning  to  grow  into 
medieval  nations,  still  exhibiting  points  of  resemblance  to 
them.  Notwithstanding  continual  feuds  and  troubles,  society 
in  Ireland  was  kept  together  by  a  dependence  of  orders  clearly 
marked,  if  less  definite  than  that  of  the  feudal  system ;  and 
traditional  custom  and  immemorial  usage,  we  may  rest  assured, 
had  immense  influence.  As  in  the  case  of  all  the  Celtic  races, 
the  Irish  were  passionately  attached  to  their  chiefs;  the  devotion 
of  the  Celt,  indeed,  to  persons  as  contrasted  to  laws,  to  rulers, 
if  great,  rather  than  to  institutions,  is  one  of  his  most  distinctive 
qualities ;  it  appears  strikingly  in  the  history  of  France. 

We  may  next  briefly  survey  the  advance  made  by  the 
Irish  in  the  arts  of  war  and  of  peace.  The  rude  assem- 
blages of  the  warriors  of  the  tribes  were  probably  even  in  a 
less  sense  armies,  than  the  hosts  called  together  by  the  rulers 
of  the  Franks,  or  even  than  the  levies  of  Egbert  and  Alfred ; 
and,  at  a  later  period,  the  weapons  of  the  Irish  soldier  were 
very  inferior  to  those  of  the  Norman  and  Saxon.  But  the 
Celtic  races  have  always  excelled  in  war,  if  this  excellence  has 
been  rendered,  in  some  degree,  fruitless,  by  certain  defects  in 
their  brilliant  quaHties;  and  they  have  shown  a  singular 
aptitude,  in  every  age,  to  fall  in  with  the  usages  of  other  races 
in  the  field,  to  serve  with  distinction  in  foreign  armies,  and  to 


14  Ireland.  [Chap. 

achieve  great  things,  under  great  leaders.  Celts  overthrew  the 
Macedonian  phalanx,  and  made  their  presence  felt  with  awe  in 
Asia ;  Celts,  under  Hannibal,  crossed  the  Alps,  and  at  Cann» 
broke  the  stubborn  Roman  infantry.  So  the  Irish  soldiery 
turned  the  scale  at  Fontenoy,  and  at  Cremona  and  Dettingen 
won  the  applause  of  their  enemies ;  so  they  have  earned 
renown,  on  many  a  battle-field,  in  the  armies  of  Austria,  of 
France,  and  of  Spain. 

The  earliest  Laws  of  Ireland  seem  to  have  been  written  in 
verse,  like  the  Runic  rhymes,  or  the  Etrurian  soothsayings. 
They  were,  we  have  seen,  perhaps  purged  of  evil  by  Patrick, 
who  made  "  the  Law  of  Nature  yield  to  the  Law  of  the 
Letter";  and  they  formed  a  huge  collection  of  primitive 
customs.  The  oldest  specimens  do  not  go  back  beyond  the 
eleventh  or  twelfth  centuries,  but  they,  doubtless,  reproduce 
much  of  a  far  more  ancient  date.  These  laws  have  little  in 
common  with  the  decisions  of  Courts  of  Justice,  or  with  Acts 
of  Parliament,  the  great  sources  of  the  Law  of  England,  for 
judicial  tribunals,  and  anything  like  a  Parliament  had  no 
existence  in  the  Ireland  of  the  Celt ;  they  were  the  studies 
and  reflections  of  generations  of  lawyers,  known  as  Brehons, 
who,  if  not,  in  a  true  sense,  a  caste,  were  a  corporation  held  in 
profound  esteem  and  reverence.  The  Irish  Brehon  was  an 
interpreter  of  the  law  and  a  judge;  he  corresponded  to  the 
Homeric  Themistes,  and  to  other  legal  sages  of  the  old  Aryan 
races.  The  Brehon  Laws  were  execrated  by  Tudor  lawyers 
and  called  the  usages  of  a  merely  barbarian  people ;  but  the 
sentence,  if  not  without  plausible  grounds,  was,  in  the  main, 
that  of  undiscerning  ignorance.  The  worst  charge  made 
against  them — that  they  did  not  recognise  crimes,  and  that  the 
"  eric,"  or  compensation  for  blood,  was  the  highest  penalty 
known  to  them — was  simply  due  to  the  fact  that  crimes  in 
modern  law  are  a  classification  of  wrongs  owing  their  origin  to 
conceptions   that   did  not  exist  in  ancient  Ireland,  the  con- 


I.]  Ireland  before  the  Anglo-Norman   Conquest.        15 

ceptions  of  Public  Justice  and  of  a  Supreme  State ;  and 
compensation  for  homicide  was  the  common  mode  of  redress 
in  the  primitive  Aryan  famiHes.  As  for  other  parts  of  the 
Brehon  Laws,  which  Tudor  lawyers  specially  condemned,  for 
example,  their  canons  of  descent  and  succession,  these  were  in 
accord  with  the  actual  state  of  society,  and  are  largely  justified 
on  an  examination  of  it,  mischievous  as  they  may  have  been  in 
a  subsequent  age.  The  Brehon  Laws,  so  far  as  they  have  as  yet 
been  published,  contain  much  that  is  just  and  wise;  but  they  are 
deficient  in  breadth  and  comprehensive  views ;  and  they  are 
overlaid  and  injured  by  the  refined  subtleties  and  the  ingenuity 
characteristic  of  Celtic  nature.  They  are  full  of  conceits  and 
extremely  complex,  never  simple  or  striking  in  their  ideas ;  they 
contrast  strangely  with  the  English  Common  Law,  with  all  its 
faults,  the  expression  of  the  mind  of  a  masterful,  and  a  proud, 
but  a  free  people.  In  one  respect,  however,  the  Brehon 
lawyers  seem  to  have  had  just  and  enlightened  conceptions; 
they  systematically  discouraged  collective  rights  in  land,  and 
did  much  to  encourage  separate  ownership,  one  of  the  first 
great  steps  in  social  advancement. 

The  Irish  have  always  dwelt  in  the  long-buried  past — it  is 
a  characteristic  of  the  Celtic  races ;  they  possessed  annals  and 
chronicles  even  at  this  period.  It  seems  vain  to  dismiss  these 
records  as  "piles  of  tinted  cloud"  that  "cannot  be  condensed 
into  solid  fact";  the  Irish  Annals,  it  has  been  acutely  re- 
marked, are  singularly  correct  in  their  references  to  comets  and 
eclipses,  and  to  natural  phenomena  that  can  be  ascertained; 
Sir  James  Mackintosh  contends  "that  the  Irish  are  enabled  to 
boast  that  they  possess  genuine  history  several  centuries  more 
ancient  than  any  European  nation  possesses  it  in  its  spoken 
language."  Few  of  the  existing  Irish  annals  and  histories  are 
of  an  earlier  date  than  the  twelfth  century;  but  they  are  almost 
certainly  compiled  from  ancient  manuscripts,  some,  it  is  be- 
lieved, running  up  to  the  age  of  Patrick.    These  archaic  produc- 


P-io,  18 


1 6  Ireland.  [Chap. 

tions  are  in  the  Irish  tongue,  and  are  for  the  most  part  hidden 
in  national  libraries ;  but  one  work  of  the  same  class,  though 
much  more  modern,  has  been  not  long  ago  given  to  the  world, 
translated  carefully,  and  furnished  with  elaborate  notes.  The 
Annals  of  the  Four  Masters,  collected  in  the  seventeenth  century, 
by  learned  monks  of  the  Franciscan  order,  perhaps  dependents 
of  the  chiefs  of  Tirconnell,  contain  an  account  of  Ireland  from 
the  earliest  times,  and  are,  doubtless,  modelled  on  the  type 
of  the  old  chronicles.  They  are  a  rude  record  of  dry  state- 
ments, without  a  trace  of  artistic  skill,  or  a  pretence  to  historical 
form  or  order;  but  we  catch  in  the  narrative  the  note  of  sorrow 
that  seems  inherent  in  Irish  nature,  and  that  Irish  monks  of 
that  age  might  fitly  utter.  But  the  Irish  chronicles  and  annals, 
like  those  of  the  Teutonic  races,  seem  to  have  been  devoid  of 
the  charm  and  keen  intelligence  which  pervade  the  immortal 
work  of  the  Greek  Father  of  History. 

The  great  poets  of  the  world  belong  to  the  Semitic,  the 
Hellenic,  and  the  Teutonic  races.  The  most  brilliant  poetry 
of  the  Celtic  race  is  to  be  found  in  the  literature  of  France ;  it 
has  been  made  admirably  attractive  and  correct  by  the  civilisa- 
tion of  many  ages ;  and  French  lyrical  poetry  justly  ranks  high. 
But  who  would  compare  the  rhetoric  of  Corneille,  the  weak 
and  lifeless  creations  of  Racine,  and  the  prolific  but  rather 
commonplace  genius  of  Voltaire,  with  the  song  of  David, 
Ezekiel's  grandeur,  the  rush  of  Homer's  verse,  the  strength  of 
Aeschylus,  the  divine  touch  of  Shakespeare,  the  master  hand  of 
Goethe  ?  The  poetry  of  ancient  Ireland  seems  to  have  been 
abundant,  but  it  was  certainly  not  of  a  high  quality.  A  single 
Irish  epic  exists,  but  a  translation  has  not  as  yet  been  attempted. 
The  native  Irish  poetry  of  a  much  later  date  shows  grace  and 
delicacy,  even  fair  promise ;  but,  as  is  characteristic  of  the 
Celtic  intellect,  at  certain  stages  of  its  development,  it  is  wanting 
in  strength  and  overlaid  with  petty  refinements  and  false  orna- 
ments; it  continually  sacrifices  truth  to  form;  it  is  devoid  of 


I.]         Ireland  before  the  Anglo-Norman  Conquest.       17 

really  creative  genius.  Spenser  wrote,  with  just  insight,  of  the 
Irish  poems  of  his  day  : — "  Yea,  truly  I  have  caused  divers  of 
them  to  be  translated  unto  me,  that  I  might  understand  them, 
and  surely  they  savoured  of  sweet  wit  and  good  invention,  but 
skilled  not  of  the  goodly  ornaments  of  poetry ;  yet  were  they 
sprinkled  with  some  pretty  flowers  of  their  natural  device, 
which  gave  good  grace  and  comeliness  unto  them."  The  vein 
of  melancholy  pervading  Irish  nature  appears  very  clearly  in 
old  Irish  poetry,  and  also  a  kind  of  satiric  wit;  we  see  these 
qualities  perhaps  in  the  highest  perfection  in  the  pathetic 
ballads,  and  the  satires  of  Moore.  But  place  a  ballad  and  a 
satire  of  Moore  beside  a  song  of  Tennyson  and  a  satire  of 
Dryden,  and  the  difference  between  the  poetic  power  of  the 
Celt  and  the  Teuton  will  at  once  be  perceived. 

The  Semite,  the  Hellene,  and  the  Teuton  have,  also,  been 
the  great  masters  of  song.  The  sweet  singers  of  Israel  have 
reappeared  in  Jewish  composers  of  recent  times,  and  in  Jewish 
musical  artists  of  extraordinary  power.  The  legend  of  Orpheus 
attests  the  Greek  love  of  melody ;  the  Athenian  drama  had  an 
orchestra  worthy  of  it.  Handel  and  Beethoven  are  the  chiefs  • 
of  modern  harmony ;  the  barbarous  war  songs  of  the  Teutonic 
tribes  are  said  to  have  shown  a  kind  of  rude  majesty.  France 
exhibits  what  is  best  in  Celtic  art;  but  French  music,  Hke 
French  poetry,  has  never  been  noted  for  strength  or  grandeur. 
Yet  music  certainly  held  a  high  place  among  the  primitive 
Celts,  and  especially  so,  perhaps,  among  the  old  Irish  tribes. 
The  harp  was  the  instrument  loved  by  the  Celt ;  the  Irish 
harpers  were  of  pecuHar  excellence.  Giraldus,  a  half  Norman 
Celt  of  Wales,  who  disliked  the  Irish,  has  written  "  that  their 
harpers  are  incomparably  more  skilful  than  any  I  have  seen ; 
their  manner  is  not  slow  and  harsh,  but  lively  and  rapid,  the 
melody  is  sweet  and  sprightly."  These  ancient  musicians  were, 
perhaps,  associated  with,  and  formed  part  of,  the  Bards,  held 
in  honour  by  the  Irish  kings  and  chiefs,  and  attached  to  their 

M.  I.  2 


1 8  Ireland.  [Chap 

households  from  the  earliest  times;  and  they  had  their  separate 
caUing  down  to  the  seventeenth  century.  The  race  of  the 
harpers  survived  even  the  revolutions  which  overwhelmed 
their  masters ;  one,  Carolan,  was  a  really  great  musician, 
renowned  in  the  age  of  Swift  and  Berkeley;  a  few  were 
to  be  found  almost  within  living  memory.  The  old  Irish 
music  was  rich  in  melody,  occasionally  of  a  most  exquisite 
kind ;  it  was  full  too  of  Irish  sadness  and  sorrow.  It  is  to 
be  found  to  this  day  in  compositions,  especially  in  so-called 
Italian  airs,  of  which  the  authors  have  not  acknowledged  the 
origin. 

In  ancient  Ireland,  as  in  the  rest  of  Europe,  the  noble  arts 
of  painting  and  sculpture  had  made  little  progress  at  this  period. 
The  figures  in  the  old  Irish  buildings  and  churches,  in  many 
instances  of  great  antiquity,  are  rude,  unsightly,  and  without 
grace  of  form ;  they  would  have  shocked  even  a  primitive 
Hellene.  But  the  Celtic  Irish  crosses  show  much  skill  of 
workmanship,  if  not  remarkable  beauty  of  design ;  and  Irish 
hands  have  given  proof  of  ingenious  cunning,  in  ornaments  of 
many  kinds,  in  gold,  and  especially  in  illuminating  sacred 
manuscripts.  These  are  not  specimens  of  artistic  genius,  and 
they  disclose  the  Celtic  tendency  to  oversubtlety ;  but  they  are 
interesting,  and  have  a  real  merit  of  their  own.  Architecture, 
in  Ireland,  in  this  age,  was  certainly  in  a  backward  state,  owing 
probably  to  incessant  wars  and  feuds ;  few  dwellings  seem  to 
have  been  built  of  stone;  the  petty  towns  were,  perhaps, 
collections  of  huts,  like  the  Gaulish  oppida  of  the  days  of 
Cssar;  even  the  "forts"  of  the  chiefs  were  rude  and  weak 
structures.  The  Celtic  Irish  churches  were,  for  the  most  part, 
small,  and  many,  it  is  said,  were  built  of  wood  ;  but  the  remains 
of  one  or  two  reveal  symmetry  and  grace,  though  majesty  and 
strength  are  here,  too,  wanting.  The  mysterious  Round  Towers, 
it  is  commonly  supposed,  were  belfries  attached  to  the  ancient 
churches;    but  tlie   skill  seen  in  these  structures,   and  their 


I.]         Ireland  before  the  Anglo-Norman  Conquest.        19 

shapely  forms,  make  this  supposition  open  to  doubt,  and  seem 
to  point  to  the  work  of  a  not  Celtic  race. 

The  essential  characteristics  of  the  ancient  Irish  appear  even 
at  this  remote  period.  They  were  those  which  have  marked 
out  the  families  of  the  Celts,  as  these  have  figured  on  the  stage 
of  History.  The  Irish  were  brilliant  rather  than  solid,  apt  to 
learn,  skilled  in  diffusing  ideas,  but  wanting  in  certain  elements 
of  intellectual  strength  belonging  to  other  branches  of  the 
Aryan  stem.  In  the  works  of  the  mind  they  were  rather 
ingenious  than  great;  they  were  subtle,  not  practical,  not 
supremely  gifted,  not  masters  of  the  realities  of  things.  They 
had  fancy  but  not  imaginative  power ;  what  they  accomplished 
was  seldom  perfect;  they  were  deficient  in  depth,  and  in  the 
highest  intelligence.  In  their  moral  tendencies  they  were 
passionately  attached  to  persons,  and  had  little  reverence  for 
institutions  and  laws ;  they  were  emotional,  fickle,  and  easily 
led,  more  interesting  than  formed  for  high  destinies.  It  would 
be  unjust  to  describe  them  as  a  backward  race,  for  they  had 
been  outside  the  influences  that  made  for  progress ;  but  they 
were  already  being  left  behind  by  communities  possessing 
more  useful  qualities.  As  in  the  case  of  all  Celts,  however,  the 
worst  characteristic  of  the  old  Irish  was  their  never-ending 
intestine  discord,  which  kept  them  constantly  in  a  state  of 
barbarous  conflict.  This  has  been  seen  in  other  Aryan  races, 
at  certain  periods  of  their  hfe  and  growth;  but  they  have 
usually  been  able  to  emerge  from  this  anarchy,  and  to  combine 
into  real  and  powerful  nations.  It  has  been  otherwise  with 
most  parts  of  the  Celtic  family ;  and  the  Irish  are  a  conspicuous 
instance  of  the  fact.  Nor  is  the  history  of  France  a  proof  to 
the  contrary  :  however  strong  has  been  her  unity  for  ages,  no 
land  has  been  torn  by  more  relentless  factions ;  no  people  has 
been  rent  by  such  savage  feuds,  especially,  Uke  the  Irish,  in  the 
iace  of  an  enemy'. 

1  Csesar  thus  desciihes  the  Gallic  Celts  of  his  day.     De  Bello  GalHro, 


20  Ireland.  [Chap 

From  the  beginning  of  the  ninth  to  the  eleventh  centuries, 
Celtic  Ireland  was  exposed  to  the  destructive  raids  of  pirate 
hordes  from  the  isles  of  the  Baltic  and  from  the  shores  of  the 
Scandinavian  Peninsula.     The  Danish  invasions  of  Ireland  ran 
a  different  course  from  those  suffered  by  England  at  the  same 
period.     The   Anglo-Saxons   resisted  the  Danes   bravely,    but 
they  never  struck  them  down  in  one  decisive  battle.     Alfred 
was   compelled   to  temporise   at  the   Peace  of  Wedmore ;    a 
Danish    dynasty  sat    on  the    throne    of  England ;    a    Danish 
settlement  spread  far  inland  from  the  Thames  to  the  Humber ; 
and   the   Danes  finally  became  a  part  of  the  great   English 
people,  and  gave  it  some  of  its  very  best  elements.     In  Ireland 
the  invaders  were  more  than  once  called  over  by  chiefs  and 
princes  ready  to   accept  any  aid   against  rivals  and  foes   at 
home — a  common  and  mournful  result  of  Celtic  discords ;  but 
though   one   Danish    warrior,    perhaps   Lodbrog,   overran  and 
ruled  a  large  part  of  the   island,  the  Danes  were  ultimately 
subdued,  and  almost  driven  out.     They  appear,  in  fact,  never 
to  have  had  a  permanent  hold  over  nine-tenths  of  Ireland. 
'J'hey  planted  colonies  along  the  seaboard  ;  built  probably  three 
or  four  walled  towns — Dublin,  Waterford  and  Limerick  are  the 
best  known  of  these — set  up  in  them  a  rude  municipal  govern- 
ment ;    and   created  the   principal   fisheries    of   Irish    salmon. 
But  Ireland  never  had  her  Danelagh ;    the  invaders   did   not 
blend  with  the  native  race ;  the  Irish  scarcely  show  a  trace  of 
Danish  blood. 

The  Danes  suffered  their  first  great  defeat  at  the  hands  of 
King  Malachy  of  the  Hy-Niall  line — "the  wearer  of  the  collar 
of  gold  "  commemorated  in  the  verse  of  Moore.  But  the  glory 
of  crushing  the  pirate  settlers  and  expelling  them,  for  the  most 

6.  II  "  In  Gallia  non  solum  in  omnibus  civitatibus,  atque  in  omnibus 
pagis  partibusque,  sed  paene  etiam  in  singulis  domibus  factiones  sunt. "  Of 
the  Irish  patriots  of  1800-I4,  Napoleon  says,  C^rr.  32.  328: — "lis 
etaient  divises  d'opinion,  et  se  querellaient  continuellement  entre  eux." 


I.]         Ireland  before  the  Anglo- Norman  Conquest.        21 

part,  from  the  country,  belongs  to  Brian — a  fine  historical 
figure — called  not  inaptly  the  Irish  Alfred.  Brian,  one  of  the 
lesser  kings  of  the  South,  was,  in  a  certain  sense,  an  usurper ; 
he  displaced  the  supreme  Hy-Niall  dynasty ;  and  became 
Monarch  in  the  first  years  of  the  eleventh  century.  His  reign 
is  still  a  bright  spot  in  Irish  annals ;  he  kept  a  distracted  land 
at  peace ;  repaired  much  of  the  ravage  done  by  the  Dane ; 
restored  churches  and  built  schools  ;  in  a  word,  was  probably 
a  really  great  sovereign.  The  legend  that  tells  how  a  fair  girl, 
though  "rich  and  rare  were  the  gems  she  wore,"  could  go  in 
safety  everywhere  in  these  golden  years,  is  a  tradition  of  an 
auspicious  period  unhappily  almost  unknown  in  Irish  history. 
Yet  Brian,  unlike  Alfred,  was  perhaps  only  a  great  chief, 
passionately  revered  and  loved  by  his  tribal  subjects ;  he 
founded  no  institutions  and  made  no  laws  ;  his  good  works 
passed  away  with  him.  His  name,  however,  is  still  famous  as 
the  hero  of  the  most  decisive  victory  ever  won  over  the  Norse 
races,  which,  as  we  have  said,  freed  Ireland  largely  from  them. 
The  great  fight  of  Clontarf,  in  which  the  Celtic  tribes,  assembled 
from  every  part  of  Ireland,  and  aided  by  friendly  Scots  from 
the  Lowlands,  overthrew,  under  the  aged  king,  the  heathen 
host  of  Sitric  and  Sigurd,  and  drove  it  into  the  devouring  sea, 
rang  through  Christendom  as  a  mighty  deliverance,  and  was 
long  mourned  as  a  woeful  day  by  the  Danes.  It  attests  the 
valour  of  the  Irish  race  in  war;  and  Irishmen,  even  now,  as 
they  survey  the  scene,  still  rich  with  memories  of  a  Marathon 
of  their  own,  feel  the  pride  felt  by  Frenchmen  for  Valmy  and 
Jemappes. 

Brian  was  slain  at  Clontarf,  and  his  death  became  the  signal 
for  a  renewal  of  the  tribal  wars  of  Ireland.  There  is  reason 
to  believe  that  the  inferior  kings  and  chiefs  had  acquired 
increased  influence  in  the  Danish  wars,  and  that  this  became 
greater  in  the  period  that  followed.  Their  dependent  noblesse 
grew  more  numerous ;   their  rude   military  forces  were  much 


22  Ireland.  [Chap. 

augmented;  they  multiplied  their  degraded  Fuidhir  vassals, 
thus  encroaching  on  the  rights  of  the  freemen ;  and  they 
maintained  a  considerable  traffic  with  England  in  slaves.  The 
ancient  organisation  of  the  tribes,  clans,  and  septs,  and  the  pri- 
mitive settlement  of  the  land,  appear  to  have  been  much  broken 
up ;  and  power  largely  passed  into  the  hands  of  rude  princely 
warriors,  the  heads  of  predatory  levies,  continually  at  feud. 
The  Monarchy  meanwhile,  hereditary  no  more,  was  almost 
in  abeyance,  or  was  made  only  the  temporary  prize  of  con- 
tending chiefs ;  the  Church  and  all  that  pertained  to  it  suffered 
much  ;  society  in  Ireland  was  being  dissolved,  and  her  early 
civilisation  was  disappearing,  while  neighbouring  races  were 
being  formed  into  nations,  and  making  a  rapid  advance  in  the 
arts  of  life.  Towards  the  middle  of  the  twelfth  century, 
Turlogh,  the  head  of  the  great  tribe  of  the  O'Conors  of 
Connaught,  became  in  a  certain  sense  Monarch,  after  years  of 
disastrous  strife  with  rivals :  but  he  was  only  "  King  with 
opposition,"  in  the  old  chronicler's  words ;  he  never  ruled  over 
a  united  people.  He  probably  was,  however,  an  able  man; 
fine  edifices  remain,  the  work  of  his  hands ;  and  he  did  much 
to  improve  his  peculiar  realm  of  Connaught,  by  bridging  the 
great  dividing  stream  of  the  Shannon,  and  making  it  a  water- 
way for  his  "fleets."  After  a  period  of  fresh  disorder  he  was 
succeeded  by  his  son  Roderick,  the  last  Monarch  of  Celtic 
Ireland. 

The  Irish  meanwhile  had,  for  more  than  a  century, 
maintained  an  increasing  commerce  with  England,  and  had 
come,  in  some  measure,  under  English  influence.  Irish  princes 
had  married  into  great  Norman  houses ;  the  Irish  Church  was 
regarded  with  more  than  the  old  disfavour  by  prelates  in  close 
communion  with  Rome,  who  surrounded  the  throne  of  the 
Anglo-Norman  kings.  England,  too,  after  a  short  but  decisive 
struggle,  had  fallen  under  the  sword  of  William  ;  and  his  strong, 
centralised,   and,    in    the    main,    wise   government   had    done 


I.]         Ireland  before  the  Anglo-Nonnan   Conquest.        23 

much  to  make  her  a  real  and  a  great  nation.  She  was  ruled 
by  a  race  of  renowned  warriors,  as  superior  to  every  other  race 
in  Europe,  as  the  Romans  were  to  the  neighbouring  Latins  \  the 
Norman  aristocracy  were  invincible  in  the  field,  and  foremost  in 
policy,  and  in  the  arts  of  peace.  And  at  the  head  of  this  domi- 
nant caste,  was  a  great  sovereign  and  statesman,  Henry  of  Anjou, 
one  of  the  chief  founders  of  the  English  Monarchy,  who  doubtless 
saw  what  were  its  natural  limits.  The  course  of  events,  therefore, 
directly  tended  to  bring  Ireland  under  the  power  of  England, 
and  to  lead  to  the  subjection  of  the  weaker  country,  far  below 
England,  too,  in  civilised  life.  Yet  Ireland  was  a  land  of 
considerable  extent ;  she  was  separated  from  England  by  a 
stormy  sea,  and  by  the  mountain  ranges  of  Wales ;  her 
pathless,  wooded,  and  waste  tracts  were  not  easy  to  overrun 
and  occupy ;  and  she  was  inhabited  by  a  race,  in  many 
essential  points  differing  very  widely  from  the  English  people, 
and  already  not  well  disposed  to  the  "Saxon."  The  Book  of 
Fate  had  not  yet  been  opened ;  but  Nature  herself  had 
provided  that  the  conquest  of  Ireland  might  prove  a  difficult 
and  protracted  task. 


CHAPTER    II. 

THE  ANGLO-NORMAN  CONQUEST  OF  IRELAND.  STATE 
OF  THE  COUNTRY  FROM  THE  REFGN  OF  HENRY  II 
TO   THAT   OF    HENRY   VII. 

The  designs  of  Henry  II  for  the  conquest  of  Ireland.  The  Bull  of  Adrian. 
Dermod,  the  dethroned  king  of  Leinster,  applies  for  aid  to  Henry. 
The  descents  of  Fitzstephen  and  Fitzgerald  follo\ved  by  that  of 
Strongbow.  Easy  superiority  of  the  Norman  arms,  but  no  real 
invasion  attempted.  Henry  II  in  Ireland.  The  Synod  of  Cashel. 
Policy  of  the  king.  He  leaves  Ireland  not  having  effected  the 
Conquest.  Visit  of  John  to  Ireland,  and  his  subsequent  efforts  to 
extend  the  power  of  the  Crown.  State  of  Ireland  at  his  death.  The 
period  between  the  reign  of  John  and  the  accession  of  Henry  IV. 
Apparent  progress  of  the  power  of  England  in  Ireland,  and  its  real 
decline.  Many  and  various  causes  of  this.  Transformation  of  the 
settlers  into  the  "degenerate  Englishry,"  in  parts  of  the  island.  The 
Pale.  The  Anglo-Irish  Land.  The  Celtic  districts.  Condition  of 
these  separate  divisions  of  Ireland.  The  Church  of  the  Pale.  The 
ancient  Irish  Church.  Abuses  in  each,  and  evil  results  of  their 
hostility.  The  conflict  of  laws  in  Ireland.  The  English  and  the 
Brehon  Law.  Bad  results  of  the  conflict.  Prevalence  of  misrule  and 
disorder,  and  miserable  state  of  the  humbler  classes.  Low  state  of 
intellectual  life  in  Ireland.  The  period  from  the  death  of  Richard  II 
to  the  accession  of  Henry  VII.  Rapid  decline  of  the  power  of 
England,  and  marked  advance  of  the  Irishry.  Danger  of  the  Pale. 
The  real  faults  of  government  in  Ireland.-  The  Earl  of  Kildare 
supreme  in  Ireland  when  Henry  VII  becomes  king.  Henry  obliged 
to  temporise.  After  long  hesitation  the  king  sends  Sir  Edward 
Poynings  to  effect  a  thorough  reform  in  Ireland. 


Ch.  II.]      The  Anglo-Nonnan  Conquest  of  Ireland.        25 

Henry  II  had  hardly  been  seated  on  the  throne,  when  John 
of  Sahsbury,  a  trusted  priestly  envoy,  was  sent  to  Rome  to 
treat  for  the  conquest  of  Ireland.  The  king  simply  followed, 
in  this  respect,  the  policy  of  his  most  renowned  ancestor. 
Hildebrand  had  encouraged  William,  in  his  descent  on 
England,  on  a  plea  of  reforming  the  old  Saxon  Church ; 
Henry  sought  the  support  of  Nicholas  Breakspeare — an  English- 
man, the  Pope  Adrian  IV — to  further,  on  a  pretext  of  the 
same  kind,  his  designs  against  the  Ireland  of  the  Celt.  He 
found  in  the  Pontiff  a  willing  assistant,  for  the  dislike  felt 
at  Rome  to  the  primitive  Irish  Church  had  only  increased 
with  the  lapse  of  time ;  and  the  Popes  had  lately  made  more 
than  one  attempt  to  reform  a  communion  they  deemed  not 
orthodox.  A  legate  had  visited  the  island  a  short  time  before; 
and  though  at  a  synod  of  churchmen  convened  at  Drogheda, 
the  question  of  Easter  had  been  settled  in  the  Roman  sense, 
and  the  Irish  Church  had  nominally  accepted  the  Roman 
discipline,  still  this  rude  branch  of  the  Christian  Tree  of  Life 
was  regarded  as  an  irregular  sapling.  Adrian  had  no  difficulty 
in  granting  the  king  his  apostolic  sanction  to  subdue  Ireland ; 
his  English  and  Roman  sympathies  probably  concurred.  The 
Pope  announced  in  a  Bull  that  he  claimed  a  right  to  dispose 
of  "all  islands  on  the  globe,"  and  that  subject  to  the  suze- 
rainty of  the  successors  of  Peter',  "we  do  hold  it  good  and 
acceptable,  that,  for  extending  the  borders  of  the  Church, 
restraining  the  progress  of  vice,  for  the  correction  of  manners, 
the  planting  of  virtue,  and  the  increase  of  religion,  you  do 
enter  this  country,  and  execute  therein  whatever  shall  pertain 
to  the  honour  of  God,  and  welfare  of  the  land ;  and  that  the 
people  of  this  land  receive  you  honourably,  and  reverence  you 
as  their  Lord." 

Had  Henry,  backed  by  the  authority  of  the  Pope,  trodden  in 
the  steps  of  the  great  Conqueror,  invaded  Ireland  with  a  real 
^  See  the  Bull  at  length  in  Leland's  History,  I.  8,  ed.  of  1773. 


26  Ireland.  [Chap. 

military  force,  and  placed  the  whole  island  under  genuine 
Norman  rule,  he  might  have  had  to  win  a  battle  of  Hastings, 
but  he  would  have  laid  the  foundations  of  a  solid  government, 
and  Irish  History  would  have  run  a  different  course.  Un- 
happily, as  often  has  been  the  case  in  Irish  affairs,  the  king  was 
turned  away  from  his  first  purpose,  by  events  which  led  him  into 
other  directions.  He  was  engaged  in  a  disastrous  contest  with 
the  Celts  of  Wales,  which  may  have  made  him  cautious,  as  re- 
gards those  of  Ireland ;  had  become  involved  in  war,  about  his 
possessions  in  France ;  and  he  had  to  struggle  for  years  with 
Becket  and  the  Church.  Time  passed ;  and  what  might  have 
been  the  occasion  for  a  conquest  of  Ireland,  harsh  but  com- 
plete, ended  in  a  mere  filibustering  raid,  of  evil  omen  to 
England  and  Ireland  alike.  The  tale  of  the  lust  of  Dermod, 
and  of  the  wrongs  of  O'Ruarc,  may  be  as  mythical  as  that  of 
Lucrece  and  Tarquin ;  all  that  is  certain  is  that,  a  long  time 
afterwards,  Dermod  was  deposed  from  the  kingship  of  Leinster 
by  Roderick  O'Conor,  the  titular  Monarch,  and  that  Dermod 
carried  his  complaints  to  Henry,  reckless  of  the  consequences, 
after  the  Celtic  fashion.  A  i^w  words,  dropped  by  the  king 
in  Aquitaine,  gave  the  exile  the  encouragement  he  sought; 
and  he  applied  to  Richard  de  Clare,  the  well-known  Strong- 
bow,  and  to  Robert  Fitzstephen  and  Maurice  Fitzgerald, 
Norman  adventurers  settled  for  some  tim.e  in  Wales,  for  aid  to 
regain  his  forfeited  kingdom.  A  bargain  was  easily  struck 
with  warriors,  ready  for  feats  of  arms,  and  any  daring  enter- 
prise that  might  bring  glory,  and  plunder  with  it.  Strongbovv 
was  promised  the  hand  of  Eva,  the  daughter  of  Dermod,  and 
ample  domains  in  the  richest  parts  of  Leinster ;  Fitzstephen 
and  Fitzgerald  were  to  receive  large  grants  of  land ;  and  the 
invasion  of  Ireland  was  to  be  the  consequence. 

Fitzstephen  was  the  first  to  make  the  descent ;  he  landed 
at  Bannow,  on  the  coast  of  Wexford,  in  the  beginning  of 
May  1 1 70.     The  number  of  his  force  has  been  estimated  at 


II.]  TJie  Anglo-Norman  Conquest  of  Ireland,  27 

from  1000  to  2000  men,  a  mere  handful  to  attempt  a  conquest; 
but  it  had  a  company  of  Norman  knights  at  its  head,  and  a 
body  of  men  at  arms,  and  of  trained  archers,  an  array  infinitely 
more  formidable  than  the  rude  Celtic  levies.  Having  been 
joined  by  Dermod  and  his  auxiliaries,  the  Normans  advanced 
against  Wexford ;  and  the  townsmen,  composed,  in  part,  of 
Danes,  successfully  repelled  a  first  attack.  Fitzstephen, 
however,  resolved  to  do  or  die,  set  his  transports  on  fire, 
cutting  off  all  retreat ;  and  confident  in  himself  and  in  the 
warriors  in  his  train,  he  so  overawed  the  defenders  by  his  daring 
attitude,  that  their  arms  dropped  from  their  hands,  and  they  gave 
up  the  place.  The  invaders,  reinforced  by  Fitzgerald  and  a 
few  hundred  men,  advanced  into  the  wilds  of  Ossory — on  tlie 
borders  of  Kilkenny  and  the  Queen's  Counties; — they  were 
entangled  amidst  peat  mosses  and  defiles,  where  the  light 
Celtic  Kerns  proved  dangerous  foes;  but  Norman  craft  and 
prowess  prevailed ;  the  Celts  of  Ossory,  lured  to  oifer  battle  in 
a  plain,  were  easily  overwhelmed  and  put  to  flight.  By  this 
time  Roderick  had  assembled  a  great  motley  host,  having 
summoned  all  the  tribes  to  his  standard ;  and  though  many  of 
the  chiefs  held  treacherously  aloof,  he  marched  to  oppose  the 
already  exulting  conquerors.  The  king,  however,  an  Irish 
Louis  le  Debonair,  lost  an  opportunity  to  strike  down  his 
enemy;  priests,  possibly  already  lending  an  ear  to  Rome, 
induced  him  to  make  terms  with  Fitzstephen ;  Dermod 
was  restored  to  his  kingship  of  Leinster,  while  the  Norman 
adventurers  were  allowed  to  make  a  settlement  along  a  strip  of 
the  seaboard  of  Wexford.  The  raid  had  proved  the  superi- 
ority of  the  Norman  in  the  field,  in  Ireland,  as  in  every  part 
of  Europe,  and  the  essential  weakness  of  the  Irish  Celtic 
Monarchy;  it  was  to  be  the  prelude  of  many  woes  for  the 
island. 

The  Norman  eagles   quickly  scented  their   prey;    in    the 
early  autumn  of   1171,  Strongbow  had  landed  at  Waterford, 


28  Irdajid.  [Chap. 

with  a  force  of  the  same  quaUty  as  that  of  Fitzstephen,  but 
probably  two  or  three  times  larger,  and  commanded  by 
warriors  of  high  renown.  The  old  Danish  city  along  the  Suir 
was  assailed,  and  sacked,  after  a  scene  of  carnage ;  Richard 
de  Clare  was  given  the  hand  of  Eva,  with  the  inheritance 
of  the  Leinster  kingship ;  the  building  in  which  they  were 
made  man  and  wife,  known  as  Reginald's  Tower,  is  still 
in  existence.  Dermod  now  made  claim  to  the  supreme  Irish 
Monarchy;  and  bis  son-in-law,  bearing  all  resistance  down, 
pressed  forward  to  seize  and  master  the  capital,  then  also 
inhabited,  in  part,  by  Danes.  The  governor,  Hasculf,  evidently 
a  Dane,  abandoned  the  city,  and  with  a  band  of  followers 
betook  himself  to  his  shipping  in  the  Bay;  and  Strongbow, 
throwing  a  garrison  into  the  place,  overran  the  rich  plains  of 
Meath  and  Kildare,  carrying  devastation  and  terror  in  his 
path.  Nothing  seemed  able  to  withstand  the  Norman ;  but  a 
sudden  turn  took  place  in  the  invading  tide  of  fortune. 
Henry,  more  jealous  perhaps  than  any  of  his  predecessors  of 
the  aggrandisement  of  his  powerful  noblesse,  resented  an 
enterprise  undertaken  without  the  regular  sanction  of  the 
Crown ;  he  prohibited  the  passage  of  supplies  to  Ireland,  and 
ordered  Strongbow  and  his  companions  in  arms  to  return. 
Just  at  this  time  too,  Hasculf  had  come  back  to  Dublin,  at  the 
head  of  Scottish  and  Norse  bands,  and  had  laid  siege  to  the 
city  from  the  sea;  while  Roderick,  again  collecting  a  Celtic 
host,  sat  down  before  it,  along  its  western  front.  The 
garrison  was  only  a  few  hundred  men;  but  the  Norman 
warrior  never  confessed  defeat ;  and  a  desperate  sally,  which 
has  preserved  the  names  of  Raymond  Le  Gros  and  Miles  de 
Cogan,  compelled  the  affrighted  besiegers  to  disappear.  The 
invincible  adventurers  retained  the  capital ;  but  Fitzstephen 
had  been  hemmed  in  at  Wexford ;  and  Strongbow  had  failed 
in  an  attempt  to  come  to  his  relief 

These  predatory  attacks  had  proved  the  ascendency  of  the 


II.]  The  Anglo-Norman  Conquest  of  Irelaiid.  29 

Norman  knight  and  his  men  at  arms ;  but  they  had  merely 
planted  a  thorn  in  the  side  of  Ireland ;  they  had  been  only  to 
a  certam  extent  successful.  Henry  set  foot  in  Ireland  in 
October  11 7  2,  at  the  head  of  an  army  probably  6000  strong, 
under  the  command  of  400  Norman  knights ;  and  though  this 
was  an  insignificant  force,  compared  to  that  which  had  won 
the  day  at  Senlac,  he  perhaps  hoped  to  complete  the  conquest. 
His  conduct  in  Ireland  reveals  the  statecraft,  the  organising 
genius,  the  administrative  gifts,  which  have  marked  him  out 
as  a  great  ruler ;  yet  he  was  ultimately  made  to  learn  that  he 
did  not  possess  the  means  to  reduce  the  island  to  real 
subjection.  He  asserted  his  authority  as  "  Lord  of  Ireland," 
in  a  series  of  acts  of  harshness  and  clemency  ;  but,  true  to  his 
mission  as  a  Son  of  the  Church,  he  sought  to  enUst  her  great 
spiritual  power  on  his  side.  At  a  general  synod,  held  at 
Cashel,  under  the  sanction  of  the  Pope,  and  attended  by 
several  English  Bishops,  it  was  solemnly  proclaimed  that 
"  Ireland  had  received  a  Lord  and  King  at  the  hand  of 
Providence " ;  and  the  Irish  Church  was  assimilated  to  the 
Anglo-Norman  model,  with  protestations  against  "its  abuses 
and  vices."  It  is  doubtful,  whether  any  large  number  of 
the  Irish  Celtic  clergy  expressed  their  assent,  and  their 
Church  was  practically  but  little  changed ;  yet  for  the  present, 
at  least,  the  king  had  been  declared  ruler  of  all  Ireland  by 
Right  Divine.  Meanwhile  Henry  had  taken  care  to  secure  the 
submission  of  the  late  invaders,  by  granting  them  the  territories 
they  had  seized,  to  be  held  as  ordinary  fiefs  of  the  Crown;  and 
the  chain  of  feudalism  was  thrown  over  the  whole  country,  by 
the  assertion  of  his  title  as  its  superior  lord,  illusory  as  the 
pretence  was.  The  magnificence  and  the  power  of  the  great 
Angevin  king  seem  to  have  fascinated  most  of  the  Irish  chiefs; 
they  were  entertained  by  him  in  royal  state  in  Dublin ;  they 
made  homage,  and  offered  tribute,  in  return  for  his  politic  arts 
and  courtesies ;  and  though  Roderick  held  aloof  for  a  time,  he 


30  Ireland.  [Chap. 

soon  consented  to  become  a  vassal  king  of  Connaught.  The 
supremacy  of  England,  at  least  in  name,  over  all  Ireland,  was 
thus  affirmed ;  and,  at  the  same  time,  Henry  made  an  attempt 
to  give  it  reality  within  the  tracts  of  Leinster,  which  had  been, 
in  a  certain  measure,  subdued.  Parts  of  this  region  were  made 
shireland,  and  were  placed  under  the  system  of  administration 
and  law,  which  had  grown  up  in  England  since  the  Norman 
Conquest.  A  governor  was  appointed  with  vice-regal  functions; 
something  like  a  great  Council  was  established;  Courts  of 
Anglo-Norman  law  were  created ;  and  the  "  men  of  Bristol " 
were  given  a  charter  for  Dublin. 

The  genius  of  Henry  had  traced  the  lines  of  conquest ; 
it  had  not  completed  a  single  part  of  the  edifice.  No  train  of 
colonists  followed  his  army  to  people  the  districts  it  had 
overrun ;  that  army,  besides,  was  much  too  weak  to  attempt  to 
keep  hold  on  the  whole  country.  The  king,  too,  had  been 
forced  to  temporise  with  Strongbow  and  his  companions 
in  arms;  he  made  them,  indeed,  his  vassals  in  name;  but 
he  did  not  curtail  their  overgrown  power,  an  essential  condition 
of  the  existence  of  order  and  law.  The  authority  of  the  Crown 
was  feeble  even  in  the  Anglo-Norman  region,  known  afterwards 
as  the  English  Pale ;  and  in  the  Celtic  region  beyond  it  was 
almost  a  nullity,  for  the  submissions  and  tributes  of  the  Irish 
chiefs,  even  if  continued,  made  it,  in  no  sense,  sovereign.  Yet 
had  the  king  remained  any  length  of  time  in  Ireland,  he 
possibly  might  have  established  the  Monarchy,  and  made 
its  influence  for  good  felt  throughout  the  island.  Unhappily 
he  was  obliged  to  quit  Ireland,  owing  to  the  quarrel  with 
Rome  caused  by  the  murder  of  Becket ;  and  he  was  engaged 
for  years  afterwards  in  the  ill-omened  contest  due  to  his 
rebellious  sons  and  his  consort.  "  He  departed  from  Ireland," 
said    an    acute   historian \    "without    striking   one    blow,    or 

1  Sir  John    Davies  on   Ireland   before    1603.     (The  Morley  Edition, 

p.    -222.) 


II.]  TJie  Anglo-Noi'inan  Conquest  of  Ireland.  31 

building  one  castle,  or  planting  one  garrison  among  the 
Irish ;  neither  left  he  behind  him  one  true  subject  more 
than  those  he  found  there  at  his  coming  over,  which  were 
only  the  English  adventurers  spoken  of  before,  who  had  gained 
the  port  towns  in  Leinster  and  Munster,  and  possessed  some 
scopes  of  land  thereunto  adjoining,  partly  by  Strongbovv's 
alliance  with  the  Lord  of  Leinster,  and  partly  by  plain  invasion 
and  conquest." 

Henry  II  seems  to  have  perceived  the  tendency  of  the 
Irish  Celt  to  love  men,  not  things;  "the  people  of  that  land," 
wrote  the  Tudor  Davies,  "  did  always  desire  to  be  governed  by 
great  persons";  and  the  renowned  Plantagenet  flattered  this 
sentiment.  He  sent  his  son  John,  while  still  in  his  teens,  with 
a  goodly  array  of  Norman  knights  and  nobles,  to  restore  order, 
if  possible,  in  the  Anglo-Norman  tracts,  and  especially  to 
propitiate  the  rulers  of  the  Celts,  now  for  years  in  frequent 
revolt  from  the  Crown.  The  mission,  however,  of  John  failed  ; 
the  petulant  youth  and  his  gay  companions  insulted  and 
terrified  the  Irish  chiefs,  and  what  was  perhaps  worse,  harassed 
the  Anglo-Norman  settlers  by  pretensions  to  parts  of  their 
honours  and  lands,  creating  the  division  between  the  English 
and  the  Anglo-Irish  "  interests,"  which  had  evil  results  during 
successive  centuries.  John  was  chief  governor  of  Ireland 
during  Richard's  reign  ;  and  when  on  the  throne,  in  his  mature 
years,  made  a  real  and  serious  eftbrt  to  complete  the  Conquest, 
and  to  extend  the  dominion  of  the  Crown  and  its  influence  for 
good.  His  policy  was  marked  by  his  tyrannous  nature,  but 
also  by  the  statesmanlike  views  he  had  inherited  from  his 
illustrious  father.  He  visited  Ireland — in  itself  a  great  thing — 
and  throughout  his  reign  endeavoured  to  bridle  the  proud 
nobles,  who  were  tearing  their  feudal  lordships  to  pieces.  He 
enlarged  four  counties,  already  shireland,  into  twelve,  bringing 
the  invader's  rule  to  the  line  of  the  barrier  stream  of  the 
Shannon ;  he  placed  them,  nominally  at  least,  under  the  power 


32  Iirland.  [Chap. 

of  the  Crown.  He  also  built  Royal  Castles — one,  at  Trim,  still 
existing — to  occupy  points  of  vantage  within  the  territory  of  the 
king ;  and  he  enjoined  the  great  feudatories  to  keep  on  foot  the 
armed  arrays  they  were  bound  to  maintain.  He  laboured,  too, 
evidently,  in  many  ways,  to  improve  the  state  of  the  Anglo- 
Norman  settlement.  The  citizens  of  Dublin  obtained  a 
charter;  the  Courts  of  Justice  were  made  more  efficient,  and 
administered  law  beyond  their  former  bounds ;  the  Great 
Charter  was  extended  to  the  "  King's  Irish  lieges,"  the  name 
of  an  Archbishop  of  Dublin  being  on  the  document.  John, 
however,  made  no  attempt  to  subdue  the  great  Celtic  land 
beyond  the  growing  Pale ;  he  left  it  to  its  feuds,  its  troubles, 
its  usages ;  he  only  sought  to  conciHate  the  Irish  chiefs,  under 
the  easy  conditions  imposed  by  his  father,  and  to  gain  from 
them  allegiance  and  tribute. 

The  real  condition  of  Ireland,  at  the  death  of  John,  may 
be  collected  from  many  instructive  records.  After  the  lapse 
of  not  far  from  half  a  century,  the  Conquest  was  little  more 
than  it  had  been  in  1172.  The  Anglo-Norman  setdement  was 
very  weak  :  a  stream  of  colonists  would  not  flow  into  it,  across 
wide  hill  ranges  and  a  tempestuous  sea.  There  was  no  regular 
army  to  support  the  Government,  for  this  was  inconsistent  with 
the  ideas  of  the  time ;  and,  spite  of  punishments  and  menaces, 
the  great  Lords  employed  their  feudal  retainers  not  in  the 
service  of  the  Crown,  but  to  aggrandise  themselves,  or  to  fight 
with  each  other.  The  Pale  was  not  parcelled  out  among  its 
chief  possessors,  with  a  view  to  military  defence,  or  the  require- 
ments of  war ;  the  great  Castles  were  erected  where  the  owners 
chose ;  and  this  territory  was  dangerously  open  to  attack.  The 
domain  even  of  comparative  law  and  order  had  virtually  been 
but  little  extended.  The  administration  of  the  justice  of  the 
Crown  was  of  no  avail  in  the  lands  of  the  ruling  nobles;  these 
were  scenes  of  lawless  disorder  and  bloodshed,  like  the  vast 
lordships  of  that  arrogant  noblesse  which  boasted  "  that  the 


II.]  The  Anglo-Norman  Conquest  of  Ireland.  33 

waves  were  before  the  sea,"  and  "that  they  were  Rohans  if 
they  could  not  be  kings."  There  was  no  effective  central 
government,  and  nothing  like  a  People,  even  within  the  circle 
of  the  so-called  shires;  all  was  tyranny,  violence,  feudal 
oppression.  The  true  Irish  land,  still  two-thirds  of  the  island, 
was  left  divided  among  its  Celtic  chiefs,  who  submitted  them- 
selves to  their  distant  suzerain,  or  took  up  arms  against  his 
nobles,  just  as  it  suited  their  fickle  purpose ;  this  region  was 
also  given  up  to  ever-increasing  anarchy.  Strangely,  too,  though 
the  Pale  had  been  pushed  further,  the  influence  of  the  Celt 
was  growing  within  its  borders,  owing  to  a  most  remarkable 
change  of  usage  and  manners,  to  be  noticed  afterwards  when 
it  becomes  fully  manifest.  England,  at  this  period,  had  little 
more  hold  on  Ireland,  than  the  Mogul  Empire  had  on  India  in 
the  days  of  Clive  and  Hastings. 

A  period  of  more  than  six  generations  of  man  divides  the 
reign  of  John  from  that  of  Henry  IV.  To  outward  seeming 
the  power  of  England  over  Ireland  had  been  extended  during 
this  long  space  of  time.  Edward  I  and  Edward  III  would 
have  thought  it  foul  scorn  had  their  supremacy  over  the  whole 
of  the  island  been  questioned  in  Parliament,  or  in  a  Court  of 
Justice;  it  had  repeatedly  been  acknowledged  by  Irish  kings 
and  chiefs.  The  ascendency,  too,  of  the  arms  of  England  had 
been  proved  decisively  throughout  this  period ;  the  Anglo- 
Normans  and  the  Englishry,  as  their  successors  were  called, 
were  irresistible  in  the  field  against  the  Irish  Celts,  who  could 
not  contend,  in  fair  fight,  with  the  knight,  the  man-at-arms, 
and  the  English  longbow.  Now  and  then  indeed,  the  light- 
armed  Irish  soldiery  struck  down  Norman  and  Saxon,  as  in 
Fitzstephen's  time,  in  cunningly  laid  ambushes,  or  in  an 
intricate  country;  Black  Friday,  long  a  day  of  mourning  for 
the  townsmen  of  Dublin,  commemorates  a  successful  Irish  raid 
and  massacre.  But  English  conquest  made  steady  progress,  if 
we  look  at  material  force  only;  the  De  Burghs  carried  their 

M.  I.  'K 


34  Ireland.  [Chap. 

arms  through  Ulster  and  Connaught,  and  the  Geraldines  to 
the  extreme  verge  of  Munster ;  the  old  kingship  of  Roderick 
was  effaced  at  Athunree;  the  invasions  of  the  Bruces  were 
formidable  for  a  time,  but  came  to  an  end  after  the  rout  of 
Dundalk ;  the  Irishry  stooped  their  heads,  like  reeds,  at  the 
sight  of  the  footmen  and  the  bows  and  bills  of  Richard  II. 
Nor  can  it  be  said  that,  in  all  these  years,  anything  like  a 
general  resistance  was  made  to  the  advance  of  the  English 
enemy,  if  made  in  earnest.  Occasionally  an  Irish  Vercingetorix 
appeared ;  the  heroic  deeds  of  Aedh  O'Conor,  and  of  Cathal 
of  the  Red  Hand,  have  been  handed  down,  by  tradition,  to 
modern  song  ^ ;  Art  MacMurrogh  was,  for  a  time,  the  terror 
of  the  Pale;  Donald  O'Neill — a  descendant  of  the  Hy-Niall 
monarchs — seems  to  have  aimed  at  forming  a  great  league 
under  Edward  Bruce,  to  overthrow  the  Englishry.  But  national 
effort  there  was  none,  for  the  national  idea  did  not  exist ;  the 
Irish  chiefs,  ever  divided  by  tribal  discord,  growing  only  worse 
with  the  progress  of  time,  seemed  unable  to  unite  for  a  patri- 
otic purpose ;  they  either  fought  singly  against  the  enemy  at 
hand,  or  wasted  their  strength  in  destroying  each  other,  or,  as 
often  happened,  called  in  the  EngUshry  to  come  to  their  aid 
against  their  fellows — conduct  too  characteristic  of  all  the 
Celtic  races,  but  especially,  as  we  have  said,  of  the  Irish 
family  ^ 

The  dominion  of  England,  nevertheless,  had  made  no  real 
advance  in  this  period ;  the  influences  that  in  Ireland  would 
have  produced  good  government,  had  certainly,  on  the  whole, 
declined.  In  addition  to  the  causes  before  referred  to,  which 
had  led  to  the  feebleness  of  English  power  and  to  misrule 
and  anarchy  in  Irish  affairs — the  absence  of  a  steady  influx  of 
settlers — the  want  of  a  regular  army  to  complete  the  conquest, 

^  See  Campbell's  poem  O'Connor's  Child. 

2  So   Tacitus   of    the   Celts   of  Britain,    Agricola   12,    "Dum   singuli 
pugnant,  universi  vincuntur." 


II.]  TJie  Anglo- Normaji  Conquest  of  Irela7td.  35 

and  to  vindicate  the  authority  of  the  state — the  neglect  and 
misuse  of  the  feudal  militia — the  lawless  ascendency  of  the 
great  nobles — the  disregard  of  precautions  to  defend  the  Pale 
— and  the  abandonment  of  the  Celtic  tracts  to  the  native 
chiefs  and  tribes — other  causes  had  arisen,  in  the  thirteenth 
and  fourteenth  centuries,  to  prolong  and  even  aggravate  the 
resulting  evils.  Thousands  of  colonists,  doubtless,  had  set 
foot  in  Ireland  between  the  reigns  of  John  and  Henry  IV  ; 
but  a  counter-current  had  checked  the  stream ;  many  had 
returned  to  England,  unable  to  endure  the  misgovernment  and 
oppression  existing  everywhere;  the  settlement  of  the  Englishry 
remained  very  weak.  Three  or  four  times,  during  this  period, 
the  forces  of  the  Crown  had  been  asembled,  and  had  easily 
crushed  the  foes  they  encountered ;  but  no  army,  as  had  been 
the  case  before,  was  kept  together  to  hold  feudalism  down,  to 
overawe  the  Irishry,  to  maintain  English  rule.  While,  too,  the 
great  nobles  continued  to  neglect  their  duties,  made  no  pro- 
vision for  the  defence  of  their  domains,  wasted  their  feudal 
arrays  in  petty  wars  and  broils,  and,  in  a  word,  abused  the 
large  powers  in  their  hands,  a  series  of  accidents  had  made 
their  authority  perceptibly  less  where  it  conduced  to  good. 
Some  of  the  old  Anglo-Norman  Houses  had  died  out;  the 
lands  of  others  had  passed  into  the  hands  of  heiresses,  whose 
lords  lived  on  their  estates  in  England;  the  heads  of  not  a 
few  had  quitted  the  country ;  and  thus  absenteeism,  disastrous 
at  all  times,  and  especially  disastrous  in  a  feudal  age,  had 
begun  to  produce  its  manifold  ills  in  Ireland.  Another  change, 
too,  in  the  position  of  the  feudal  noblesse,  had  not  only  injured 
the  power  of  the  state,  but  had  proved  very  destructive  of 
order  and  law,  in  a  considerable  part  of  the  ill-fated  land. 
Apart  from  the  De  Burghs,  the  great  families  of  the  Geraldines 
and  Butlers  had  become  the  chiefs  of  the  descendants  of  the 
Anglo-Norman  conquerors ;  and  these  had  acquired  by  royal 
grant   or   usage,  rights    and   powers    even    larger    than    those 

3—2 


36  Ireland.  [Chap. 

bestowed  somewhat  carelessly,  at  first,  on  the  companions  of 
Strongbow.  Within  the  vast  region  extending  between  the 
verge  of  Kildare,  by  Kilkenny,  and  Limerick,  to  where  the 
wilds  of  Kerry  meet  the  Atlantic,  these  nobles  were  all  but 
sovereigns  in  their  palatinates,  and  possessed,  in  fact,  nearly 
the  whole  power  of  government.  They  created  knights,  levied 
war  at  pleasure,  convened  feudal  assembhes,  and  held  courts 
of  justice ;  they  were,  in  a  word,  superior  to  the  state  and  its 
will;  it  is  scarcely  necessary  to  indicate  the  results. 

Other  causes  concurred  still  further  to  lessen  the  authority 
of  the  Crown  in  Ireland,  and  to  prevent  the  existence  of  well- 
ordered  government.  The  direct  influence,  nay,  the  presence 
of  the  king  was  essential  to  the  welfare  of  the  Feudal 
Monarchy;  he  was  the  true  source  of  Right,  and  the  champion 
of  Law;  he  checked  the  excesses  of  an  encroaching  baronage; 
he  was  the  vigorous  protector,  in  his  own  interests,  of  the 
Church,  the  subject  classes,  and  the  entire  community.  Strong 
as  had  been  the  Conqueror's  deeply  founded  government,  it 
almost  went  to  pieces,  when  Henry  II  was  entangled  in 
foreign  quarrels  and  wars,  when  Henry  III  showed  himself 
unable  to  rule,  and  during  the  inglorious  reign  of  Richard  II ; 
the  complete  ascendency  of  Edward  I  in  his  realm  was 
largely  due  to  his  devoting  his  genius  to  advancing  the  great- 
ness of  England  on  the  spot,  and  to  the  extension  of  Royal 
Justice  at  home.  Henry  II  and  John  apparently  felt  that 
their  personal  rule  in  Ireland  was  required ;  and  in  no  part  of 
the  dominions  of  the  English  Crown  was  this  salutary  element 
of  power  so  needed  to  keep  overbearing  feudahsm  down,  to 
restrain  English  misrule  and  Celtic  anarchy,  to  promote  the 
growth  of  civilised  life.  Most  unfortunately,  for  nearly  two 
centuries,  Ireland,  as  has  been  the  case  almost  ever  since,  was 
left  without  this  beneficent  influence ;  Edward  I  did  not  care 
to  visit  the  country — one  of  the  few  errors  of  his  glorious  reign 
— though  he   evidently  perceived  what  good  might  have  fol- 


ir,]  The  Anglo-No7i]ian  Conquest  of  Ireland.  37 

lowed;  Edward  III  thought  of  it  only  as  a  field  for  recruits, 
and  for  revenue  in  his  protracted  wars;  the  showy  and 
frivolous  Richard  II  was  the  one  sovereign  who  set  foot  in 
Ireland,  from  12 10  to  1394.  Even  his  apparition  proved  how 
immense  would  have  been  the  advantages  to  a  distracted  land, 
had  an  English  monarch  directly  controlled  the  administration 
of  Irish  affairs,  and  taken  the  government  of  Ireland  in  hand. 
But,  as  we  have  said,  this  was  denied  by  fortune;  the  very 
keystone  of  the  Medieval  Monarchy,  on  which  the  edifice  in 
the  main  depended,  was  left  out  of  the  arch  in  Ireland.  What 
wonder  then  that  it  was  weak  and  tottering ;  what  wonder  that, 
in  the  greatest  part  of  the  country,  the  central  government  was 
reduced  to  nothingness ;  that  feudalism,  lawless  and  all  power- 
ful, threw  its  destructive  shadow  over  other  parts ;  and  that  the 
rest  of  the  island  remained  the  domain  of  the  Celt  ? 

In  the  absence  of  the  king,  a  long  series  of  Viceroys, 
succeeding  each  other  at  brief  intervals  of  time,  ruled,  or 
rather  pretended  to  rule,  Ireland.  This,  which  constituted  the 
only  central  government,  did  not  practically  extend  beyond 
the  Pale,  except  occasionally,  and  by  fits  and  starts ;  but  its 
nature  was  such,  that  it  did  not  increase  the  influence  or  the 
power  of  the  Monarchy;  that  it  provoked  injurious  dissensions 
and  feuds ;  that  it  did  not  promote  social  or  political  progress. 
The  Viceroys  were  chosen  from  different  orders  of  men;  they 
received  commands  from  the  seat  of  power  in  England, 
repeatedly  changing  and  discordant ;  they  held  different,  nay 
opposite  views,  as  to  the  direction  and  management  of  Irish 
affairs.  Some,  like  Gaveston,  put  their  trust  chiefly  in  an 
imposing  display  of  miHtary  force ;  others,  like  Lionel  the 
Duke  of  Clarence,  aimed  at  aggrandising  the  influence  of  the 
Crown  and  giving  effect  to  the  will  of  its  ministers,  regardless 
of  the  means,  however  unjust ;  many,  chosen  from  the  official 
class  of  nobles,  and  even  of  plebeians  rising  in  the  state, 
tried    to   strengthen    the    English   settlement  in  the  Pale,  to 


38  Ireland.  [Chap. 

weaken  the  dominant  Anglo-Norman  Houses,  and  to  reduce 
the  Irishry,  as  they  were  called,  to  submission,  often  taking 
severe,  nay  atrocious,  measures,  to  attain  what  they  deemed 
necessary  ends;  the  majority,  perhaps,  drawn  from  the  old 
Norman  families,  adopted  an  exactly  opposite  course,  upheld 
feudalism  and  the  abuses  of  its  power,  and  lorded  it  over 
Saxon  and  Celt  alike.  For  Ireland,  therefore,  there  was 
nothing  like  a  continuous  and  a  systematic  policy;  the 
administration,  and  the  acts  of  the  government,  often  in- 
consistent and  at  odds  with  each  other,  kept  the  land  in  a 
state  of  unrest  and  trouble ;  all  that  was  certain,  if  irregular, 
was  harsh  violence  and  tyranny  exercised  in  high  places. 
Now  and  then  the  power  of  the  Crown  was  asserted  by 
iniquitous  and  unscrupulous  means ;  now  and  then  sentences 
of  forfeiture  were  pronounced  against  powerful  absentee  nobles; 
the  lands  of  old  Norman  Houses  were  occasionally  seized  to 
make  way  for  a  colony  of  fresh  Enghsh  settlers ;  and,  in  the 
case  of  Lords  of  the  Pale,  and  even  of  Irish  chiefs,  proscription 
and  confiscation  were  sometimes  frequent.  On  the  other 
hand,  Geraldines  and  Butlers,  when  enthroned  at  the  Castle, 
exacted  vengeance  from  those  who  had  wronged  their  retainers 
and  themselves ;  oppressed  and  harried  the  Englishry  of  the 
Pale ;  and  were  especially  hostile  to  the  subordinates  sent 
from  England  to  observe  or  to  control  their  acts.  The  general 
result,  besides  misrule,  confusion,  disorder  almost  everywhere, 
was  to  make  the  distinction  between  the  recent  English 
settlers,  and  the  old  Anglo-Irish  inhabitants  of  the  land,  of 
which  traces  may  be  found,  even  in  the  days  of  John,  more 
marked  and  profound,  with  the  progress  of  time;  the  "English 
and  Anglo-Irish  interests "  became  intensely  hostile,  and  at 
continual  feud ;  and  the  effects,  in  weakening  the  power  of 
England,  were  evil  and  manifest. 

The  most  remarkable  cause,  however,  and  certainly  not  the 
least  effective,  of  the  failure  of  the  advance  of  English  power, 


II.]  The  Anglo-Norman  Conquest  of  Ireland.  39 

and  of  misgovernment  in  a  large  part  of  Ireland,  remains  to  be 
noticed  and  explained.  The  conquerors,  we  have  seen,  had 
borne  their  arms  everywhere;  they  had  spread  far  beyond  the 
Shannon  in  Connaiight ;  they  had  reached  the  Atlantic  line  of 
the  coast  in  Ulster  and  Munster;  and  they  had  planted 
settlements  in  these  distant  regions,  while  they  were  dominant 
throughout  three-fourths  of  Leinster.  They  might  have  es- 
tablished English  rule  in  these  wide  territories  had  they 
remained  true  to  the  usages  of  their  race,  and  had  not  these 
been  largely  transformed  by  a  most  singular  process,  in  the 
course  of  time.  But  in  different  degrees,  and  in  a  variety  of 
ways,  the  descendants  of  the  invaders  and  their  followers 
adopted  the  customs  of  the  children  of  the  soil ;  changed  from 
Norman  lords  into  Celtic  chiefs ;  preferred  tribal  authority  to 
feudal  power,  and  even  tribal  life  to  the  life  of  their  fathers, 
nay,  in  remote  districts  put  on  the  Irish  garb,  actually  lost  the 
use  of  their  native  tongue,  and  trained  their  levies  for  the  field 
after  the  Irish  fashion.  Symptoms  of  the  metamorphosis  had 
shown  themselves  within  a  few  years  from  the  first  invasion ; 
but,  by  the  close  of  the  fourteenth  century,  they  had  made  whole 
counties  of  Ireland  almost  Celtic,  though  once  leavened  with 
Norman  and  English  elements ;  and  this  revolution  had  had  a 
potent  effect,  in  narrowing  the  bounds  of  English  dominion, 
and  in  producing  misrule  and  anarchy.  The  causes  of  a 
phenomenon  which  gave  rise  to  passionate  efforts  of  many 
English  governors '  to  prevent  what  they  deemed  an  appalling 
evil,  and  which  English  writers  have  fiercely  denounced,  are 
worthy,  perhaps,  of  a  passing  notice.  The  Anglo-Norman 
probably  found  it  more  easy  to  oppress  vassal  dependents  and 
villeins,  by  throwing  feudal  duties  aside,  and  playing  the  part 
of  an   Irish   chief;   he  would,  doubtless,   largely  increase  his 

^  These  efforts  culminated  in  the  celebrated  statute  of  Kilkenny, 
40  Ed.  Ill,  enacted  during  the  Viceroyalty  of  Lionel  Duke  of  Clarence. 
It  was  confirmed  over  and  over  again,  but  to  no  purpose. 


40  Ireland.  [Chap. 

authority,  in  the  midst  of  surrounding  Irish  clans  and  sej^ts, 
by  conforming  to  Irish  modes  of  life  and  habits.  But  the 
paramount  cause,  it  appears  likely,  was  the  peculiar  influence 
which  the  Celtic  genius  has  had  in  aftecting  races  in  contact 
with  it.  Butler  and  Geraldine  fell  under  the  fascinating  spell 
of  the  daughters  of  the  land  whom  they  had  made  wives';  the 
hard  nature  of  Norseman  and  Teuton  yielded  to  the  charm  and 
communicative  power  of  Celtic  ideas,  as  France  has  made 
Alsatian  and  Lorrainer  her  own ;  and  the  whole  course  of  Irish 
history  attests  the  fact.  The  "  degenerate  Englishry,"  as  they 
were  called,  were  in  immense  numbers  in  the  South  and  the 
West  of  Ireland,  and  even  in  parts  of  Leinster,  at  this  period. 

Ireland  had  thus  already  become  the  misshapen  and  wither- 
ing Hmb  of  the  great  English  Monarchy.  The  island  contained 
three  distinct  divisions  presenting  strongly  marked,  but  very 
different  features.  Of  the  twelve  counties  which  John  had 
made  shireland,  eight  had  almost  ceased  to  retain  this 
character;  the  Anglo-Norman  or  English  Pale  had  narrowed 
into  the  four  original  shires,  Meath,  including  Westmeath, 
Louth,  Dublin,  and  Kildare.  In  this  fine  rich  tract,  bounded 
by  the  Barrow,  the  great  lakes  of  Westmeath,  the  Mourne 
range,  and  the  sea,  the  rule  of  the  native  chiefs  had  been 
almost  effaced;  the  land  had  been  divided  among  noble 
houses  of  Anglo-Norman  and  English  descent,  lords  of 
dependents  and  tenants  of  the  same  race,  and  little  affected  by 
contact  with  the  Celt,  but  with  a  subject  population  of  the 
Irishry  in  their  midst.  The  Pale  was  the  domain  of  by  far  the 
greatest  part  of  the  civihsation  which  had  grown  up  in  Ireland; 

^  So  Davis,  a  man  of  genius,  finely  wrote: 

"  Those  Geraldines!  those  Gevaldines !  not  long  our  air  they  breathed, 
Not  long  they  fed  on  venison,  in  Irish  water  seethed, 
Not  often  had  their  children  been  by  Irish  mothers  nursed, 
When  from  their  full  and  genial  hearts  an  Irish  feeling  burst ! " 

The  Spirit  of  the  A^ation,  p.  98,  Ed,    1870. 


II.]  TJie  Anglo- Norinaji  Conquest  of  Ireland.  41 

the  numerous  castles  of  its  ancient  Barons,  some  still  existing, 
were  imposing  structures ;  the  agriculture  of  this  region  to  this 
day  seems  more  orderly  and  long  settled  than  in  the  rest 
of  the  island.  Dublin,  the  chief  town  of  this  comparatively 
favoured  land,  had  become  a  city  of  some  importance, 
possessing  municipal  rights,  and  a  i^\N  fine  buildings ;  its 
townsmen  conducted  a  tolerably  good  trade  with  England,  and 
especially  with  her  great  port  of  the  West,  Bristol.  The 
Parliaments  of  Ireland,  long  ago  established,  were  usually 
assembled  in  the  expanding  capital;  here,  too,  were  the  Castle, 
and  the  Royal  Courts  of  Justice  administering  English  law 
throughout  the  Pale ;  and  the  authority  of  the  Legislature,  the 
Viceroy  and  the  tribunals  of  the  state,  was  generally  recognised 
within  its  limits.  Troubles  and  acts  of  oppression  were  but  too 
common  ;  the  feudal  arrays  of  the  Pale  were  often  called  out  in 
"  hostings  "  against  the  '*  Irish  enemy  " ;  the  ascendency  of  one 
great  dominant  House,  at  least,  was  repeatedly  adverse  to  peace 
and  order.  But  the  sons  of  the  conquerors  and  their  successors 
had  struck  root  in  the  Pale,  and  became  a  real  and  settled 
colony;  the  whole  region,  if  not  to  be  deemed  prosperous, 
was  an  oasis  in  a  desert  compared  to  the  other  parts  of  Ireland, 
Yet  even  the  Pale  was  a  distracted  land,  often  a  scene 
of  deeds  of  blood,  and  of  anarchic  tyranny.  The  arrays  of  the 
Celts  occasionally  broke  through  the  Marches,  ill-defended, 
and  without  sufficient  fortresses;  pouring  down  through  the 
defiles  of  Wicklow,  across  the  great  expanse  of  the  Bog  of 
Allen,  and  from  the  "  gate  of  the  North,"  as  it  was  called,  near 
Dundalk,  they  waged  a  predatory  war  with  the  English  settlers. 
The  burghers  of  Dublin  were,  over  and  over  again,  affrighted 
by  the  fires  of  the  Irish  foray;  and  more  than  once  the  weak 
feudal  militia  proved  no  match  for  the  armed  swarms  of  the 
active  "Irish  enemy."  The  subjugated,  but  untamed,  Irishry 
of  the  Pale  sometimes  took  part  in  these  destructive  raids, 
rising  against   masters,  feared,  but  abhorred;   the  lot  indeed 


42  Ireland.  [Chap. 

of  these  vanquished  children  of  the  soil,  in  the  peculiar  seat  of 
the  Englishry,  must  have  been  hard  in  the  extreme.  As  was 
often  seen,  at  this  time,  in  such  cases,  in  Europe,  this  popula- 
tion, with  some  exceptions,  was  left  under  its  native  usages ;  it 
was  treated  as  completely  alien  by  the  conquering  race  ;  it 
was  outlawed  in  the  relations  of  ordinary  life ;  and,  in  the 
administration  of  justice,  it  had  scarcely  any  rights.  It  was  no 
felony  for  an  Englishman  to  slay  "  a  mere  Irishman " ;  but 
this  immunity  was  not  reciprocal ;  the  Irishman  who  killed  an 
Englishman  was  held  to  be  a  murderer ;  and  the  same  unfair 
and  odious  distinction  was  maintained  in  litigation  of  every 
kind.  The  evils  resulting  from  this  state  of  things  have 
possibly  been  unduly  magnified,  and  could  hardly  have  been 
very  great  in  other  parts  of  Ireland ;  but  they  must  have 
tended,  within  the  narrow  limits  of  the  Pale,  to  promote 
discords  and  animosities  of  race,  and  to  disturb  and  injure  the 
frame  of  society.  The  worst  feature,  however,  in  the  condition 
of  the  Pale,  at  this  period,  has  yet  to  be  noticed.  The  heads 
of  the  Geraldines,  the  great  House  of  Kildare,  were  the  feudal 
suzerains  of  a  large  part  of  this  region,  many,  too,  were  chiefs 
of  the  state  at  the  Castle — the  well-known  seat  of  the  English 
Government — and  their  overgrown  authority  was  too  often 
displayed  in  a  rule  of  oppression,  gross  wrong,  and  exaction. 
They  were  tyrants  even  of  the  Anglo-Norman  Pjaronage; 
compelled  the  levies  of  these  to  follow  their  standards,  in  feuds 
with  the  Butlers,  or  in  strife  with  the  Celt ;  kept  the  citizens  of 
Dublin  in  awe  of  their  power ;  and  repeatedly  perverted  the 
course  of  justice.  The  abuse  of  their  dominion,  however,  was 
most  ruinously  shown  in  a  mode  of  extortion  adopted,  in  part, 
from  Irish  chieftains,  who,  we  have  already  seen,  had  a  right 
to  quarter  retainers  on  their  degraded  tenants,  and,  in  part, 
from  the  Anglo-Norman  usage  of  purveyance.  The  Kildare 
Geraldines  and  their  armed  followers  ate  up  the  resources  of 
the  Pale  by  what  became  known  as  the  rapine  of  "  coyne  and 


II.]  The  Anglo- Norman  Conquest  of  Ireland.  43 

livery,"  a  kind  of  freebooting,  of  which  it  was  said,  "  that  if  it 
had  been  practised  in  Hell,  as  it  hath  been  in  Ireland,  it 
had  long  since  destroyed  the  very  kingdom  of  Beelzebub  ^" 

Outside  the  Pale,  spread  what  may  be  called  the  Anglo- 
Irish  region,  that  in  which  the  Englishry,  to  a  great  extent 
"  degenerate,"  were  intermixed  with  the  Irishry  only  in  part 
conquered.  This  great  tract,  comprising,  with  some  additions, 
the  eight  shires  of  John,  referred  to  before,  formed  the 
counties  now  known  as  Wexford  and  Waterford,  Carlow, 
Kilkenny,  Tipperary,  Cork,  Limerick,  and  a  part  of  Kerry; 
and  stretched  from  the  course  of  the  Slaney  to  the  mouth 
of  the  Shannon,  and  thence  to  the  hill  ranges  of  the  Bays 
of  Kenmare  and  Dingle.  In  Wexford,  the  south-eastern  nook 
of  this  land,  the  settlement  founded  by  Fitzstephen  had 
become  established ;  the  mountains  of  Wicklow  divided  it 
from  the  Pale ;  but  it  was  a  colony  resembling  that  of  the 
Pale;  its  inhabitants,  to  this  day,  show  scarcely  any  Celtic 
blood.  Along  the  southern  coast,  the  counties  of  Cork  and 
Waterford  were  still  largely  peopled  by  men  of  EngUsh  race, 
ruled  by  the  descendants  of  Anglo-Norman  lords  ;  but  the 
Irishry  had  considerably  encroached  on  their  bounds,  and 
filled  many  of  the  inland  districts,  especially  where  these  were 
hill  countries.  Nearly  all  the  remaining  parts  of  the  Anglo- 
Irish  territory  were  comprised  in  the  numerous  lordships  of 
the  Butlers  and  of  the  Geraldine  Desmonds,  a  far  spreading 
branch  of  the  great  House  of  Kildare,  and  exhibiting  very 
similar  qualities.  The  Butlers  were  the  feudal  lords  of  a 
Baronage,  largely  of  Norman  and  English  origin,  and  of  a 
population  of  settlers  still,  in  part,  English ;  but  association 
with  the  aboriginal  race  had  had  its  effects  in  their  vast  domains ; 
the  sons  of  many  of  the  colonists  had  become  "  degenerate  "; 
some  of  the  early  colonies  had  disappeared ;  and  the  Irishry, 
pressing  in  on  the  conquerors  in  their  midst,  had  impregnated 

^  Davies  229,  30. 


44  Ireland.  [Chap. 

them  with  Celtic  elements  of  all  kinds.  The  change  had 
been  made  more  marked  in  the  lands  of  the  Desmonds ;  in 
these  the  Norman  and  EngHsh  settlements  had  been,  from 
the  first,  comparatively  weak,  and  had,  to  a  great  extent, 
perished ;  the  inhabitants  had  become  for  the  most  part  Celtic. 
Within  this  domain  too  lay  a  great  region,  never  affected  by 
Norman  or  Saxon  influence,  wild  hills  and  plains,  closed 
by  valleys  and  defiles,  and  spreading  from  the  Shannon  to 
the  Atlantic,  where  Irish  clans  and  septs  maintained  their 
rude  freedom,  and  Irish  chiefs  defied  or  followed  their  Des- 
mond suzerains,  in  war  and  peace,  at  their  own  will  and 
pleasure.  The  Butlers,  better  known  as  the  Lords  of  Ormond, 
had  but  slightly  conformed  to  the  Irish  usages ;  but  the  Des- 
monds, far  removed  from  the  Pale,  and  surrounded  by  Celts 
on  every  side,  had  become,  at  least  while  they  lived  among 
them,  "more  Irish,"  it  was  said,  "than  the  Irish  themselves," 
and  had  adopted  the  "  sluttish  Irish  customs  and  habits." 

The  Anglo-Norman  Land  was  not  wholly  without  signs  of 
civilised  life  and  social  progress.  The  fertile  plains  of  Kil- 
kenny and  Limerick  were  studded  with  castles  and  noble 
abbeys ;  there  was  a  considerable  trade  between  the  ports  of 
Munster  and  Spain  ;  the  Butlers  and  the  Geraldines  were  even 
patrons  of  learning.  These  great  Norman  famiHes,  too,  it 
appears  certain,  retained  much  of  their  feudal  state,  even  when 
they  became  more  or  less  Irish ;  the  Plantagenets  welcomed 
their  heads  at  Court,  and  treated  them  with  the  highest  dis- 
tinction ;  they  perhaps  adopted  the  ways  of  the  Celt,  in  order 
chiefly  to  please  the  Celts  around  them.  Nor  were  they 
inveterate  enemies  of  the  Irish  chiefs ;  they  blended  with  them 
freely  in  marriage ;  and  the  Irish  chiefs  in  turn  learned  much 
from  them,  especially  in  architecture  and  the  art  of  war.  On 
the  whole  the  ruling  orders  in  this  region,  whether  Norman 
or  Irish,  formed  a  real  noblesse,  with  differences  of  race  be- 
tween them  indeed,  but  not  given  up  to  mere  barbarism,  the 


ii.J  The  Anglo-Norman  Conquest  of  Ireland.  45 

common  reproach  of  many  historians.  But  their  territories 
were  not  the  less  a  theatre  of  bloody  strife,  of  misrule  of  all 
kinds,  of  almost  incessant  disorder  and  lawlessness.  From 
Kerry  to  Kildare  the  land  was  torn  by  the  fierce  conflicts 
of  Ormonds  and  Desmonds;  the  Englishry  and  the  Irishry 
perished  by  tens  of  thousands,  in  feuds  that  made  order  and 
peace  impossible ;  the  first  conditions  of  social  well-being  and 
prosperity  could  not  exist  or  grow  up.  If  exaction,  too,  in 
the  Pale  was  grievous,  it  was  infinitely  worse  in  the  Anglo- 
Irish  Land ;  the  coyne  and  livery,  extorted  by  Geraldine  and 
Butler,  throughout  their  lordships,  was  like  the  ravage  of 
locusts;  the  Celtic  chiefs  improved  on  an  evil  example;  huge 
predatory  levies  were  kept  on  foot,  destroying  and  harrying 
whole  counties.  Nor  could  justice  and  righteous  law  have 
a  place  in  the  signiories  of  the  great  nobles ;  the  king's  writ 
had  no  force  in  these;  their  seneschals  administered  a  kind 
of  rude  medley  of  English  and  Irish  custom  and  usage  cor- 
ruptly, and  at  the  will  of  their  lords ;  the  pleasure  of  an 
Ormond  or  a  Desmond  was  supreme  in  his  Court ;  and  the 
prevalence  of  the  Brehon  law,  in  the  Celtic  regions,  alongside 
quite  a  different  system,  there  is  reason  to  believe,  did  much 
mischief  The  condition  of  all,  save  the  dominant  classes, 
was  one  of  general  poverty  and  harsh  subjection;  and,  as 
we  have  said,  the  descendants  of  many  of  the  first  colonists 
had  fled  from  a  country  unfit  to  live  in. 

We  turn  to  the  third  division,  the  Celtic  Land,  still  nearly  al- 
together the  seat  of  the  Irishry.  This  great  region  included  the 
whole  of  Ulster,  and  of  Connaught,  then  comprising  the  County 
of  Clare,  and  also  a  part  of  the  Midlands  of  Leinster ;  it  con- 
tained the  present  counties  of  Down,  Antrim,  Londonderry, 
Donegal,  Tyrone,  Fermanagh,  Cavan,  Armagh,  Monaghan, 
Roscommon,  Leitrim,  Galway,  Mayo,  Sligo,  with  Offaley  and 
Leix,  now  the  King's  and  Queen's  Counties,  in  addition,  as 
we  have  seen,  to  Clare.      The  conquering  race  had  invaded 


46  Ireland.  [Chap. 

and  held  it  in  part ;  but  the  feeble  colonies  they  had  planted 
had  dwindled  away,  and  in  some  counties  had  been  blotted 
out  j  they  were  a  mere  remnant  in  the  midst  of  the  conquered ; 
and  though  swarms  of  Scots  had  descended  on  the  coasts  of 
Ulster,  these  were  as  yet  mastered  by  the  aboriginal  people. 
The  great  Norman  nobles,  too,  had  nearly  disappeared ;  the 
De  Courcies,  struck  down  by  the  iron  arm  of  John,  had  sunk 
into  the  lords  of  a  petty  fief  in  Munster ;  and  the  De  Burghs, 
rich  as  they  were  in  Plantagenet  blood,  had  become  "  degene- 
rate Englishry  "  in  an  extreme  sense ;  and  with  their  dependent 
barons  and  vassals,  in  the  words  of  the  chronicler,  "  had  been 
metamorphosed  like  Nebuchadnezzar,  who,  although  he  had  the 

face  of  a  man,  had  the  heart  of  a  beast; insomuch  as 

they  had  no  marks  or  differences  left  amongst  them  of  the 
noble  race  from  which  they  were  descended ;  they  grew  to  be 
ashamed  of  their  very  English  surnames,  and  took  Irish  sur- 
names and  nicknames  ^"  Ulster,  Connaught,  and  a  tract  of 
Leinster  were,  therefore,  the  seat  of  the  Irishry ;  in  these 
provinces  the  descendants  of  the  Irish  kings  and  chiefs,  still 
numerous,  and  possessing  more  than  their  power  of  old,  lived 
in  rude  independence  amidst  their  tribes,  clans,  and  septs, 
little  really  affected  by  the  march  of  conquest,  and  ruling 
communities  still  following  the  usages  and  the  ways  of  life  of 
the  Celt. 

It  would  be  a  mistake  to  suppose  that  civilisation  had  no 
trace  of  existence  in  this  part  of  the  island,  as  it  certainly  had 
in  the  remaining  parts.  There  was  already  a  large  trade 
between  Galway  and  Spain,  and  between  Ulster  and  the 
South  of  Scotland ;  the  Irish  chiefs,  in  imitation  of  Norman 
art,  had  constructed  many  fine  edifices  of  stone,  especially 
fortresses  and  religious  houses ;  they  had  improved  the 
weapons  and  discipline  of  their  armed  levies ;  they  had  inter- 
married repeatedly  into  great  Norman  Houses ;  their  sons — a 

^  Davies  297,  '8. 


II.]  TJie  Anglo-Norma7i  Conquest  of  Ireland.  47 

sure  mark  that  they  were  held  in  honour  by  the  most  haughty  of 
dominant  races — having  been  often  lords  of  daughters  of  the 
noblest  Norman  families.  This,  nevertheless,  like  the  Anglo- 
Norman  Land,  was  a  centre  of  continual  broil  and  discord,  and 
of  lawless  disorder  abounding  everywhere.  The  chiefs  made 
frequent  descents  on  the  Pale,  especially  along  its  northern 
frontier ;  some  had  crossed  the  Shannon  and  made  settlements 
in  Leinster  and  Munster,  driving  out,  or  keeping  down,  the 
diminishing  Englishry.  They  were,  too,  as  had  been  the  case 
at  all  times,  in  never-ceasing  tribal  war  with  each  other ;  their 
savage  feuds  made  whole  counties  desolate;  and  "degenerate" 
as  many  of  the  Anglo-Normans  had  become,  they  appear  to 
have  still  held  them  as  traditional  foes,  or  took  sides  with 
them  in  their  incessant  quarrels. 

A  great  change,  meanwhile,  fraught  with  many  evils,  had 
been  passing  over  the  Irish  community,  in  this,  as  in  other 
parts  of  the  island.  Tribal  life,  usage,  and  law,  as  we  have 
pointed  out,  still  existed  in  the  Pale  and  the  Anglo-Irish 
tracts,  here  almost  effaced,  there  still  vigorous ;  but  they  were 
dominant  forces  in  the  Irish  Land;  this  was  still  Celtic  in 
government,  customs,  and  manners.  But,  as  had  already  begun 
after  the  Danish  wars,  the  primitive  institutions  of  the  old  Irish 
race  had,  by  this  time,  been  largely  transformed ;  the  archaic 
type  of  society  had  been  partly  broken  up  with  consequences 
of  a  disastrous  kind;  the  ancient  Celtic  civilisation  was  dying 
out.  The  supreme  hereditary  Monarchy  was  a  thing  of  the 
past;  a  tie  had  ceased  to  exist  which,  in  some  measure,  had 
kept  together  the  community  as  a  whole.  The  chiefs,  who  had 
survived  Norman  and  English  invasion,  had  grown  in  power 
within  their  dominions ;  they  had  conquered  many  inferior 
clans  and  septs,  and  had  reduced  these  to  complete  sub- 
jection; they  had  multiplied  their  companions  in  arms,  and 
made  them  a  rude  military  noblesse ;  they  had  encroached  on 
the  rights  of  the  free  clansmen   and  Ceile,   and  had  largely 


48  Ireland.  [Chap. 

turned  them  into  dependent  vassals ;  and  they  had  greatly 
increased  the  classes  of  their  Fuidhirs  and  serfs,  and  more 
than  ever  laid  a  heavy  hand  on  them.  A  kind  of  barbarous 
feudalism,  in  some  degree,  doubtless,  imitated  from  the  Anglo- 
Norman  model,  had  thus  replaced,  in  a  great  measure,  the 
old  tribal  organisation  of  the  land ;  this  still  existed,  and  was 
even  deeply  rooted;  but  it  was  gradually  yielding  to  harsher 
modes  of  rule,  and  to  a  state  of  society  showing  a  marked 
change  for  the  worse.  The  Irish  chief  had  become  more 
and  more  a  tyrant,  a  head  of  savage  warriors  who  carried  out 
his  will ;  his  tribe,  clan,  or  sept  had  become  more  and  more 
his  inferiors ;  this  was  especially  seen  in  his  "  bonaghts  and 
cosherings,"  the  Celtic  counterparts  of  "  coyne  and  livery  " ;  in 
a  word,  the  bonds,  which  had  linked  together  the  ancient  Irish 
"Family,"  had  been  weakened  and,  in  many  parts,  severed. 
This  naturally  led  to  ever-growing  disorder  and  troubles ;  in 
fact  the  Irish  chiefs  seem,  at  this  period,  to  have  been  more 
than  ever  at  feud  with  each  other. 

An  influence,  too,  of  the  most  potent  kind,  which  in 
happier  lands  has  been,  so  to  speak,  a  strong  cementing  force 
in  the  social  structure,  was  a  source  of  ill-will  and  disunion  in 
Ireland.  The  Church  in  England,  and,  indeed,  in  Europe, 
many  as  were  its  shortcomings,  nay  its  vices,  had  done  wonders 
in  promoting  just  government,  in  keeping  oppressive  feudalism 
in  check,  in  raising  the  humbler  orders  of  men  to  a  higher 
estate,  in  extending  the  domain  of  order  and  peace,  in  a  word, 
in  furthering  the  good  work  of  its  Master.  The  results  in 
Ireland  had  been  the  very  opposite,  owing  to  the  division 
which  had  existed,  from  the  first  moment,  between  the  two 
really  distinct  communions,  which  had  been  formed  after  the 
Norman  invasion.  Henry  II  had  set  up,  under  the  Bull  of 
Adrian,  a  Church  on  the  orthodox  Roman  model,  and  this 
became  the  Church  of  the  Pale;  the  primitive  Irish  Church 
of    History    remained    practically    unchanged    in    the    Celtic 


II.]  TJie  Anglo-Norman  Conquest  of  Ireland.  49 

regions.  There  were  marked  differences  between  the  two ; 
but  differences  of  ritual  and  of  doctrine  were  made  deeper  and 
worse  by  distinctions  and  hostility  of  race ;  the  Church  of  the 
Pale  was  that  of  the  Englishry ;  the  Irish  tribes  clung  to  their 
ancient  Church ;  and  perpetual  discord  reigned  between  them. 
Churchmen  of  the  Pale  went  on  "  hostings  "  against  the  clans 
and  septs;  looked  on  the  priests  of  the  Celts  as  barbarian 
enemies,  and  shut  them  out  like  pariahs  from  their  communion. 
The  clergy  of  the  old  Irish  Church  did  the  same,  and  banned 
and  cursed  their  Norman  and  Anglo-Saxon  rivals.  The  feud 
was  most  bitter  and  never-ending ;  religion,  which,  elsewhere, 
threw  an  arch  of  peace  over  waters  of  civil  and  social  strife, 
created  in  Ireland  two  hostile  camps  exasperated  by  fierce 
sacerdotal  passions.  Nor  can  it  be  said  that  either  Church 
produced  many  saintly  champions  of  the  faith  of  Christ,  even 
many  men  of  exalted  piety.  Several  prelates  of  the  Church  of 
the  Pale  were  charged  with  odious  and  wicked  crimes^;  its 
clergy  are  said  to  have  been  self-seeking,  avaricious,  cruel  to 
the  Irishry  in  their  midst,  nay  the  scum  and  refuse  of  the 
Church  in  England.  The  Celtic  Church,  on  the  other  hand, 
had  ceased  to  be  a  shining  light  of  Christendom ;  its  bishops 
and  clergy,  at  this  period,  have  been  described  generally  as 
barbarous,  ignorant,  and,  sometimes,  vicious  and  lawless ^ 
Ireland  had  nothing  like  the  noble  succession  of  great  church- 
men, who  were  the  saving  health  of  the  English  monarchy  in 
the  Middle  Ages. 

Unity  of  law  has  been  a  strong  moral  tie  to  keep  society 
together  in  all  ages.  This,  we  have  indicated,  did  not  exist  in 
Ireland ;  the  laws  of  England  were  dominant  in  the  Pale ; 
they  were   mixed   up  with    Celtic   usage   in    the   Anglo-Irish 

^  Thus  Henri  de  Londres,  an  archbishop  of  Dublin,  and  a  witness  to 
Magna  Carta,  was  accused  of  an  atrocious  fraud.     Leland  i.  206. 

^  Thus  an  Irish  archbishop  of  Cashel  is  said  to  liave  committed 
murder.     Ibid.  234. 

M.  I.  4. 


^7^ 


50  Ireland.  [Chap. 

counties;  the  Brehon  Law  was  supreme  in  the  Celtic  Land. 
This,  we  have  said,  was  not  a  peculiar  wrong,  in  the  case  of 
Ireland;  a  similar  state  of  things  was  to  be  found  in  most 
countries,  where  different  races  were  subject  to  medieval 
monarchies.  But  the  ascendency  of  English  Law  must,  we 
have  remarked,  have  pressed  severely  on  the  Irishry  of  the 
Pale ;  excluded  as  they  were  from  its  Courts  of  Justice,  and 
from  its  protection,  but  not  its  penalties,  it  must  have  often 
had  iniquitous  results.  The  benefits  of  English  Law  were, 
indeed,  conferred,  as  a  privilege,  on  five  families  of  the  great 
Irish  chiefs, — the  "quinque  sanguines"  of  old  kingly  rank — 
and  were  also  given  freely  to  the  native  race  as  denizens ; 
but  this  very  circumstance  shows  that  those  who  were  deprived 
of  this  coveted  boon  had  real  cause  of  complaint;  and  the 
Irishry  of  the  Pale,  it  must  be  borne  in  mind,  more  than  once 
entreated  Plantagenet  kings,  in  vain,  that  the  rights  of 
English  Law  might  be  extended  to  them.  On  the  whole, 
there  can  be  little  doubt  that  this  kind  of  outlawry  and 
ostracism  of  part  of  the  subject  people  was  a  grievance,  and  a 
cause  of  ill-will  and  disorder. 

The  intermixture  of  English  and  Irish  law,  in  what  we 
have  called  the  Anglo-Irish  region,  seems  to  have  been 
attended,  also,  with  real  evils.  This  was  denounced  over  and 
over  again  in  the  Parliaments  of  the  age,  and  prohibited  by 
many  severe  statutes ;  and  the  principal  reason  assigned  was 
not  ill  founded.  The  Brehon  Law,  we  have  said,  did  not 
recognise  crimes,  for  it  had  no  conception  of  a  state  or  of 
public  wrongs ;  and  the  eric  or  compensation  was  the  only 
penalty  it  inflicted  even  for  the  worst  deeds  of  blood.  When, 
therefore,  it  penetrated  into  domains  where  it  came  in  contact 
with  English  Law,  it  appeared  an  immoral  and  even  a  wicked 
usage  that  almost  secured  immunity  for  crime;  it  has  been 
called  'an  ingenious  contrivance  for  compounding  felonies"; 
and  as  crimes  and  outrages  of  every  kind  were  prevalent  in 


II.]  The  A  iiglo-Nonnan  Conquest  of  Ireland.  5 1 

these  very  districts,  it  was  not  unnaturally  condemned  as  a 
"damnable  custom,"  by  minds  on  the  side  of  order  and 
civilised  life,  especially  as  these  did  not  understand  its  prin- 
ciples. The  Brehon  usages,  again,  in  the  Celtic  Land  had  bad 
results  in  the  existing  state  of  society,  though  they  had  been 
certainly  improved  by  the  Brehon  lawyers,  who  had  brought 
into  them  parts  of  the  Canon,  and  of  the  Civil  Law  of  Rome. 
The  elective  system  of  Tanist  succession  appears  to  have 
become  much  more  common,  and  the  hereditary  principle  to 
have  been  much  less  respected,  in  these  centuries  of  increasing 
tribal  warfare;  and  Tudor  lawyers,  strongly  prejudiced  as  they 
were,  were  probably  not  in  error  when  they  maintained  that — 
apart  from  opposition  to  English  power — this  led  to  confusion 
and  endless  discord.  Very  possibly,  too,  the  mode  of  descent, 
known  as  Irish  Gavelkind,  by  which  the  chief  distributed,  on 
the  death  of  a  member  of  a  sept,  his  lands, — some,  indeed, 
say  the  entire  sept-land — among  all  the  remaining  members, 
harmless  as  it  may  have  been  in  a  primitive  age,  became 
adverse  to  social  progress,  and  to  good  agriculture,  in  more 
modern  days';  though,  doubtless,  it  was  mere  exaggeration  to 
assert  that  ^'it  was  the  true  cause  of  the  barbarism  and 
desolation  of  the  land^" 

As  has  usually  been  the  case  in  misruled  countries,  the 
unhappy  and  backward  condition  of  Ireland  was  conspicuously 
seen  in  the  poverty  of  the  state,  and  the  miserable  position  of 
the  more  humble  orders  of  men.  Notwithstanding  wars  with 
Scotland  and  France,  and  peasant  risings,  and  the  Black 
Death,  England,  at  this  period,  was,  by   many  degrees,  the 

^  Modern  writers,  notably  Mr  Hallam  and  Mr  Goldwin  Smith,  seem  to 
have  underrated  the  evils  resulting  from  the  state  of  law  and  usage  existing 
in  Ireland,  at  this  period.  The  evidence  on  this  subject  of  many  con- 
temporary statutes,  and  of  very  able  Tudor  statesmen  and  thinkers,  can 
hardly  be  questioned. 

^  Davies  291. 

4—2 


52  Ireland.  [Chap. 

most  wealthy  of  the  nations  of  the  North ;  her  society,  if  cast 

in  a  feudal  mould,  exhibited  a  well  compacted  gradation  of 

classes,  from  the  noble  down  to  the  small  holder  of  the  soil,  all, 

as  we  see  in  the  pictures  of  Chaucer,  apparently  contented 

with  their  lot  in  life.     In  Ireland,  it  was  altogether  otherwise ; 

the  feeble  central   government  had  hardly  any  revenue ;    the 

scanty  taxes  were  squandered  in  incessant  strife,  or  could  not 

be  collected  owing  to  feudal  exaction ;  the  tributes  of  the  Irish 

chiefs   were   very   seldom    paid ;     the    usual    returns    to   the 

Exchequer  were   "  In   Thesauro    Nihil."     As   we   have    seen, 

many  of  the  English  colonies  had  vanished,  the  settlers  having 

left    the   island   in    thousands ;    elements    favourable    to    the 

formation   of  a  middle    class    in    Ireland — already  strong   in 

Enghsh  national  life — had  thus  been  dissipated  or  destroyed ; 

they  could  not  grow  up  and  become  vigorous  in  a  land  of 

continual  war  and  confusion.     As  for  the  peasantry,  if  they 

could  be  called  by  the  name,  and  the  population  of  either  race, 

placed  at  the  bottom  of  the  social  scale,  they  were  in  a  state 

of   extreme  wretchedness,  like    the    serfs    of  France,   or   the 

predial    slaves  of    Germany.      The    great    nobles    and    their 

dependent   barons,  the  leading  and    even   the   inferior   Irish 

chiefs,  lived  in  a  kind  of  rude  wasteful   grandeur,  fattening 

on  plunder  gathered  in  on  all  sides;    but  their  villeins,  their 

Fuidhirs,  their  degraded  bondsmen,  were  thralls  in  hopeless 

distress  and  want.     "  What  common  folk  in  all  this  world" — so 

ran  a  state  paper  of  a  later  date,  but  doubtless  applicable  to 

this  time — "  is  so  poor,  so  feeble,  so  evil  beseen  in  town  and 

field,  so  bestial,  so  greatly  oppressed  and  trodden  under  foot, 

fares  so  evil,  with  so  great  misery,  and  with  so  wretched  a  life, 

as  the  common  folk  of  Ireland^?" 

In  intellectual  life  and  energy  Ireland  was  as  backward  as 
in   her   material    condition.     Successive   generations   of  great 

^  State  Papers  II.   14.     Referred  to  in  Froude's  History  of  England 
11.  283,  '4. 


II.]  TJie  Anglo-Norman  Conquest  of  Ireland.  53 

rulers  and  statesmen  had  made  the  government  of  England  ihe 
best  in  the  world ;  her  Parliaments  were  already  the  rising 
power  in  the  state  ;  they  were  national  councils  in  no  doubtful 
sense ;  they  were  full  of  elements  of  increasing  strength  and 
wisdom.  And  there  had  been  a  corresponding  movement  in 
the  mind  of  England ;  Oxford,  from  the  first  years  of  the 
thirteenth  century,  Cambridge  at  perhaps  a  somewhat  later 
date,  had  been  centres  of  fruitful  mental  activity ;  Wycliff  had 
been  the  herald  of  the  Reformation ;  a  noble,  nay,  a  popular 
literature  had  appeared,  seen  in  the  masterpieces  of  a  great 
poet,  Chaucer,  and  in  the  keen  and  even  tragic  satire  of 
Langland.  Ireland  in  every  particular  showed  an  unhappy 
contrast  to  these  glories  of  genius  in  the  highest  places,  and  to 
these  brilliant  triumphs  of  the  understanding  of  man.  Her 
government,  confined  to  the  nook  of  the  Pale,  was  such  as  has 
been  already  described,  feeble,  without  definite  policy  and  aim, 
capricious  and  harsh  in  many  acts  of  violence,  but  usually 
impotent  to  do  good,  never  enlightened,  statesmanslike  or,  in 
any  sense,  national.  Her  Parliaments,  little  more  than  Con- 
ventions of  the  Pale,  were  ruled  by  a  few  great  nobles  and 
churchmen,  for  a  free  and  strong  House  of  Commons  could 
not  exist  in  a  land  of  tyranny  and  war,  and  where,  except 
Dublin,  there  were  but  a  few  towns  above  the  rank  of  villages ; 
their  legislation  was  petty,  local,  selfish,  timid, — that  of  a 
colonial  caste  in  the  midst  of  enemies ;  it  had  nothing  resembling 
the  noble  statutes  enacted  at  Westminster  at  this  period,  the 
still  living  sources  of  English  law  and  liberty.  So  it  was,  too, 
with  the  work  of  the  mind  in  Ireland ;  this  exhibited  lethargy, 
neglect,  nay  even  a  marked  decline.  The  Brehon  lawyers, 
indeed,  we  have  said,  did  much  to  make  the  letter  of  their 
laws  better ;  learned  men  were  to  be  found  in  many  religious 
houses;  there  were  poets,  annalists,  and  bards  in  the  Celtic 
Land  of  the  same  type  as  five  centuries  before;  a  kind  of 
literature  grew  up  within  the  Pale;    the  Anglo-Irish  lawyers 


54  Irelaiid.  [Chap. 

could  show  many  able  "clerks,"  especially  in  scions  of  old 
Norman  Houses.  But  an  attempt  to  found  a  University  in 
the  capital  had  failed ;  there  was  nothing  like  an  Irish  Oxford 
or  Cambridge,  no  William  of  Wykeham  or  William  of  Waynflete; 
the  churchmen  of  both  Churches  had  scarcely  a  name  acknow- 
ledged by  posterity  as  really  great ;  the  level  of  knowledge 
throughout  the  country  was  pitiably  low.  Darkness  had 
settled  on  the  ill-fated  land  which  had  irradiated  Europe  at  an 
earlier  age ;  and  this  while  England  was  basking  in  light,  and 
when  Christendom  had  felt  the  first  day-spring  of  a  new  era. 

From  the  death  of  Richard  II  to  the  accession  of  Henry 
VII — that  is  throughout  nearly  all  the  fifteenth  century — the 
state  of  Ireland  became  in  every  respect  worse.  The  causes  of 
the  change  are  easily  discerned.  Talbot,  indeed,  the  terror  of 
the  French  name,  overthrew  Celtic  tribes  in  more  than  one 
encounter;  and  a  few  able  military  governors  of  the  Pale 
appeared.  But  the  Lancastrian  Kings  completely  neglected 
Ireland,  between  conquests  in  France  and  civil  war  at  home ; 
the  reins  were  thrown  on  the  necks  of  Viceroys,  who  exag- 
gerated all  that  was  bad  in  the  misgovernment  of  the  past. 
The  feud  between  the  "  new  Englishry  "  of  the  Pale,  and  the 
*'  old  Englishry  "  in  it,  in  part  "  degenerate,"  became  more  than 
ever  envenomed ;  obscure  governors  sometimes  struck  down 
great  nobles,  or  played  them  against  each  other,  to  keep  up  a 
show  of  power ;  but  ultimately  the  dominant  House  of  Kildare 
became  more  than  ever  the  oppressors  of  the  Pale,  and  held  its 
nominal  rulers  in  fear  and  subjection.  Meanwhile  a  miniature 
of  the  Wars  of  the  Roses  was  seen  in  the  increasing  strife 
between  Ormonds  and  Desmonds,  the  first  supporters  of  the 
House  of  Lancaster,  the  second  devoted  to  the  House  of  York; 
local  broils  were  replaced  by  far  spreading  warfare,  more 
sustained,  for  it  had  a  plausible  cause  or  a  pretext.  The  flower 
of  the  colonists,  too,  perished  on  English  battle-fields,  in  the 
contest  for  the  throne ;   and  the  land  Avas  deprived,  to  a  large 


II.]  TJie  Anglo- Norman  Conquest  of  Ireland.  55 

extent,  of  the  few  remaining  elements  of  its  military  power. 
The  refluent  stream  of  the  departing  Englishry  became  more 
rapid  and  strong  than  before ;  the  depopulation  of  their 
settlements  went  on  apace ;  their  colonies,  in  whole  districts, 
completely  disappeared. 

In  this  state  of  affairs,  the  Irish  chiefs  still  further  en- 
croached on  the  conquering  race,  in  wild  incursions  and 
predatory  strife ;  they  seized  and  occupied  a  large  part  of  the 
Pale ;  when  Bosworth  was  fought  the  four  shires  had  been 
narrowed  into  a  little  strip  of  territory  about  fifty  miles  long  by 
twenty  broad,  extending  from  Dundalk,  on  the  northern  verge 
of  Louth,  nearly  by  the  course  of  the  Boyne  and  the  Liffey, 
and  thence  to  the  edge  of  the  hills  of  Wicklow.  The  weakness 
of  the  Englishry  had  become  so  complete  that,  like  the  effete 
Portuguese  in  Africa,  they  paid  a  "  Black  Rent"  to  their  once 
contemned  enemies  ;  and — a  marked  sign  of  humiliation — 
they  shrank  behind  a  ditch,  built  to  keep  out  the  rising  tide 
of  the  Celts.  Had  the  Irish  possessed  a  real  leader,  or  been 
capable  of  a  vigorous  and  general  effort,  the  invaders  must 
have  been  driven  into  the  sea;  the  settlement  of  the  Pale 
would  have  gone  like  other  settlements.  It  is  unnecessary  to 
repeat  that  exaction,  anarchy,  and  misery  had  become  worse 
than  ever ;  in  the  picturesque  words  of  a  chronicler  of  tlie 
day,  "  Ireland  is  the  land  that  the  angel  understood ;  for  p 
there  is  no  land  of  so  continual  war  within  itself;  ne  of  such 
great  shedding  of  Christian  blood;  ne  of  so  great  robbing, 
spoiling,  preying,  and  burning,  ne  of  so  great  wrongful 
extortion  continually,  as  Ireland^" 

England  had  been  dominant  in  Ireland  for  more  than 
three  hundred  years,  and  might  have  reduced  her  to  subjection, 
over  and  over  again,  with  fortunate  results  to  both  countries, 
had  she  really  put  forth  her  power.  It  is  an  error  to  imagine 
that,  during  this  long  period,  she  had  been  a  regular  oppressor 

1  Ware,  Writers  of  Ireland,  p.  90. 


56  Ireland.  [Chap. 

of  the  native  people,  or  had  dark  and  evil  designs  against  it. 
Many  Viceroys,  indeed,  did  harsh  things ;  but  they  were, 
perhaps,  more  severe  to  the  Lords  of  the  Pale,  than  to  the 
Irishry  almost  outside  the  sphere  of  their  influence.  It  is 
untrue,  besides,  that  the  conquering  settlers  had  been  cruel,  as 
a  rule,  to  the  native  race ;  the  Norman  bore  no  dislike  to  the 
Celt,  and  treated  him  for  the  most  part  as  a  loyal  vassal ;  this 
was  hardly  the  case  with  the  Anglo-Saxon  Englishry ;  but  the 
animosities  of  faith  and  blood,  so  terrible  afterwards,  were  as 
yet  not  very  strong.  The  faults  in  the  rule  of  England  were 
altogether  different :  they  were  those  of  negligence,  ignorance, 
want  of  insight ;  and  accidental  circumstances  had  also  their 
part.  The  first  Norman  descents  accomplished  hardly  any- 
thing ;  the  governments  that  succeeded  only  formed  a  weak 
Pale,  and  a  feudal  land  beyond  it ;  and  no  attempt  was  made 
thoroughly  to  subdue  the  native  Irish.  Feeble  and  irregular 
efforts  of  power  had  divided  Ireland  into  a  declining  colony,  a 
land  of  contending  nobles,  and  the  regions  of  the  Celt ;  this 
state  of  things  had  ended  in  the  decay  of  the  Pale,  in  the 
general  diminution  of  the  English  settlers,  in  the  wide-spread 
lawlessness  of  the  Celtic  tribes,  in  almost  universal  misrule 
and  disorder. 

The  worst  instance  of  neglect,  perhaps,  was  the  absence 
from  Ireland  of  her  sovereign  lords ;  the  presence  of  the 
English  kings  might  have  done  wonders;  but  a  series  of 
mischances  kept  them  out  of  Ireland.  The  charges  of 
persistent  cruelty  and  wrong  disappear;  but  the  state  of 
Ireland,  at  the  end  of  the  fifteenth  century,  was  not  the  less 
disastrous  for  England  and  the  lesser  island.  The  whole 
country  was  a  prey  to  anarchy — a  thing  of  wounds,  bruises, 
and  putrefying  sores ;  the  germs  of  civilisation  had  been  well- 
nigh  destroyed ;  Ireland,  Norman,  Saxon,  and  Celtic  alike, 
had  in  the  course  of  ages  distinctly  gone  back,  and  showed 
less  signs  of  progress  than  in  the  reign  of  Henry  II.     The 


II.]  TJie  Anglo-Norman  Conquest  of  Ireland.  57 

conquest  made  piecemeal,  the  complete  want  of  anytliing 
resembling  good  general  government,  the  scarcely  checked 
domination  of  noble  and  chief,  the  strife  between  the  Churches, 
and  the  conflict  of  law,  had  been  some  of  the  manifold  causes 
which  had  reduced  Ireland  to  her  wretched  condition,  and  had 
all  but  extinguished  the  rule  of  England.  And  beside  this 
unhappy  and  distracted  land,  lay  England,  rich  in  national 
strength,  and,  even  after  a  period  of  war,  full  of  elements  of 
progressive  national  life ;  and  her  statesmen  doubtless  already 
felt  that,  sooner  or  later,  Ireland  must  become  an  English 
dependency.  The  greater  and  lesser  countries  were  on  a 
plane  of  civilisation  and  wealth  completely  different;  should  a 
conflict  arise  it  was  easy  to  perceive  that  if  it  were  not  made, 
in  a  short  time,  decisive,  it  might  be  protracted  for  many 
years,  especially  as  the  subjugation  of  Ireland  required  a  real 
effort. 

Henry  VII  sat  on  a  tottering  throne,  long  after  he  had 
been  proclaimed  king.  His  power  in  England  was  thwarted 
by  plots  and  factions ;  in  Ireland  it  was  little  more  than  a 
name.  Gerald,  the  eighth  Earl  of  Kildare,  revered  as  the 
"Great,"  in  the  traditions  of  a  race  devoted  to  leaders  of  men, 
was  Viceroy,  and  supreme  at  the  Castle ;  but  his  authority  in 
Ireland  was  very  different  from  that  of  an  ordinary  governor  of 
the  Pale.  He  was  connected  by  marriage  with  the  chiefs  of 
the  O'Neills,  and  with  the  Butlers  of  Ormond,  his  feudal 
enemies ;  he  had  immense  influence  with  the  Desmonds  of  his 
blood,  having  saved  them  from  an  arbitrary  act  of  attainder. 
Nature,  too,  had  made  him  a  remarkable  man,  abounding  in 
wit,  resource,  and  capacity;  he  could  rule,  with  excellent 
results,  in  the  interests  of  the  Crown,  if  given  a  free  hand  to  do 
as  he  pleased ;  but  he  was  equally  ready  to  conspire  against 
it,  if  crossed  in  any  of  his  ambitious  purposes.  Henry  was 
compelled  to  negotiate  with  a  most  dangerous  subject;  and 
events  soon  showed  what  was  the  ascendency  of  Kildare,  and 


58  Ireland.  [Chap.  ii. 

what  a  shadow  was  English  power  in  Ireland.  The  Earl,  Hke 
all  the  Geraldines,  was  true  to  the  House  of  York ;  he  seems 
to  have  aspired  to  play  the  great  part  of  a  Warwick;  he 
crowned  the  Pretender,  Simnel,  with  his  own  hand;  and  he 
despatched  from  Ireland  the  force  which  was  destroyed  at 
Stoke.  The  threats  and  remonstrances  of  the  king  proved 
vain ;  and  notwithstanding  this  act  of  flagrant  rebeUion, 
Kildare  received  a  pardon,  and  was  kept  in  his  government. 
Ere  long  he  took  up  the  cause  of  Perkin  Warbeck ;  and, 
meanwhile,  the  impotence  of  the  state  being  more  than  ever 
manifest,  the  discords  and  troubles  of  Ireland  continued  to 
increase,  and  the  ruin  of  the  Pale  seemed  fearfully  imminent. 
Henry  was  forced  at  last  to  take  a  decided  course ;  he  resolved 
to  try  to  effect  a  thorough  change  in  the  system  of  government 
and  administration  that  had  so  long  prevailed  in  Ireland.  Sir 
Edward  Poynings,  a  member  of  that  able  official  class, 
encouraged  for  centuries  by  the  Plantagenets,  and  especially 
favoured  by  the  Tudors,  was  placed  at  the  head  of  affairs  in 
Ireland,  and  charged  to  make  a  searching  and  complete 
reform.  The  subordinates  who  accompanied  him — a  signifi- 
cant fact — were  soldiers,  churchmen,  and  lawyers  of  English 
birth ;  the  Anglo-Irish  had  been  removed  from  the  Castle. 


CHAPTER   III. 

IRELAND,   DURING  THE   TUDOR    PERIOD,   TO   THE    END 
OF   THE   REIGN    OF   HENRY  VIII. 

The  government  of  Poynings  an  epoch  in  Irish  History.  The  ParHament 
of  Drogheda.  The  reforms  it  accompUshed.  "  Poynings'  Law,"  and 
its  objects.  Kildare  placed  again  at  the  head  of  affairs  in  Ireland. 
Nature  of  his  government.  The  Battle  of  Cnocktue.  Character  of 
the  Earl.  Splendour  of  the  House  of  Kildare.  Gerald,  the  ninth 
Earl,  made  Deputy.  The  policy  of  conquest  and  confiscation  in 
Ireland  rejected  by  the  king.  His  plan  for  governing  Ireland. 
Kildare,  after  a  short  interval  of  time,  replaces  Surrey  as  Deputy.  He 
is  imprisoned  in  the  Tower,  but  made  Deputy  again  in  1532.  Danger 
of  England  in  1534.  Kildare  sent  again  to  the  Tower.  The 
Rebellion  of  Silken  Thomas.  Danger  of  the  Pale  and  of  English 
power  in  Ireland.  Siege  and  fall  of  the  Castle  of  Maynooth. 
Collapse  of  the  rebellion.  Death  of  Earl  Gerald.  Execution  of 
Silken  Thomas  and  his  uncles.  Ruin  of  the  House  of  Kildare.  A 
child,  Gerald,  saved  to  restore  the  family.  The  Reformation  in 
Ireland.  State  of  the  Church  of  the  Pale  and  of  the  Celtic  Church. 
Policy  and  measures  of  the  king.  The  Parliament  of  1536.  The 
king  made  Head  of  the  Church,  and  before  long  King  instead  of  Lord 
of  Ireland.  Other  reforms.  Opposition.  Attempts  made  by  Anglo- 
Norman  lords  and  Irish  chiefs  to  rise.  Battle  of  Bellahoe.  Rapid 
decline  of  the  insurrection.  Progress  of  the  English  arms  in  Ireland. 
Henry  carries  out  his  scheme  of  Irish  government.  The  Parliament 
of  1540-2.  Success  of  the  king's  policy.  Ireland  at  peace.  Re- 
flections. 

The  Viceroys  of  Ireland  had  had  the  tide  of  Lords  Lieutenant, 
or  were  Deputies  of  these ;  there  was  scarcely  any  difterence 


6o  Ireland.  [Chap. 

between    their  functions ;    Poynings    had  the  inferior  rank  of 
Deputy.     His   government    marks    an    era    in    Irish    history, 
though  it  was  brief,  transitory,  and  with  few  immediate  effects. 
A  Parhament  was  convened  at  Drogheda,  in  the  beginning  of 
1495  'i  ^  l<^^o  series  of  laws  was  passed,  designed  to  curtail  the 
power  of  the  great  nobles,  to  provide  for  the  defence  of  the 
Pale   against    Celtic   tribes,  and   to    extend    the   influence    of 
English  Law,  and  of  the  Tudor  Monarchy.     An  opportunity 
was  found  to  attaint  Kildare  and  some  of  his  kinsmen ;  the 
Earl,  after  a  show  of  fruitless  resistance,  was  made  prisoner 
and  sent  off  to  the  Tower.     At  the  same  time,  an  attempt  was 
made  to  check  the  waste  and  rapine  of  coyne  and  livery,  by  sub- 
stituting a  kind  of  local  tax,  and  to  put  an  end  to  the  excesses  of 
feudal  lawlessness.    The  dominant  Anglo-Norman  Lords  of  the 
Pale  were  forbidden  to  make  war,  or  to  "propose  ordinances," 
without  the  consent  of  the  Executive  Government ;  they  were 
not  to  assemble  their  levies  of  armed  retainers ;    their  rude 
war-cries  were  to  be  heard  no  more ;  their  authority  in  towns 
was  greatly  reduced ;   they  were  not  to  oppress  the  inferior 
Baronage,  and  their  vassals  and  dependents  of  English  blood. 
Precautions,  too,  were  taken  for  the  defence  of  the  Pale ;  the 
ditch  was  to  be  repaired  and  manned ;  the  feudal  militia  was 
to  guard  the  marches ;  the  practice  of  the  long  bow,  beginning 
to  die  out,  was  to  be  restored  and  vigorously  maintained ;  and 
the   usages    of   the    Irishry   were    not  to    exist   in    the    Pale, 
especially  the  eric,  or  the  fine  of  blood,  murder  being  made 
subject  to  all  the  results  of  treason.     The  statute  of  Kilkenny, 
besides,  was   revised   and    confirmed,  as  had  often  been  the 
case  in  the  preceding  century.    This  famous  law  was  enacted  in 
1367,  under  the  Viceroyalty  of  Lionel  Duke  of  Clarence,  and 
formed  a  code  of  pecuhar  stringency,  intended  to  keep  the 
EngHshry  and   the   Irishry  completely  apart.     It    treated  the 
Pale  as  a  separate  region,  continually  exposed  to  the  attacks 
of  enemies,  and  always  to  be  kept  in  a  state  of  defence;  it 


III.]  Ireland  during  the  Tiidor  period.  6 1 

prohibited  intermarriage  between  the  two  races,  the  extension 
of  the  Brehon  Law  and  of  Irish  customs  within  the  precincts  of 
the  EngUsh  Land,  and  everything  that  tended  to  fuse  together 
the  Saxon  and  the  Celt.  It  had,  however,  been  long  nearly 
a  dead  letter,  effaced  by  influences  it  could  not  resist,  though 
probably  not  altogether  powerless;  its  revival,  as  before,  was  to 
be  of  little  purpose.  « 

This  legislation  of  Poynings,  and  his  administrative  acts, 
resembled  the  policy  of  one  of  our  great  Viceroys,  in  the  early 
days  of  British  rule  in  India,  whose  aim  was  to  restrain  the 
misconduct  and  greed  of  the  Company's  chief  officials,  yet  who 
thought  only  of  the  purely  English  settlements,  and  regarded 
the  native  races  with  distrust  and  aversion.  The  remaining 
laws  of  the  Deputy's  Parliament  had,  we  have  said,  as  their 
object  to  make  English  Law,  and  the  power  of  the  Crown,  of 
greater  effect  in  Ireland.  The  principal  officers  of  the  State, 
including  the  Judges,  had  previously,  it  would  appear,  held 
their  places  for  life,  and  had  been  appointed,  perhaps,  by  the 
Viceroys;  they  were  now  to  hold  strictly  at  the  king's  pleasure, 
a  provision,  which,  within  the  limits  of  the  Pale,  gave  a  large 
increase  to  the  Royal  authority,  and  to  the  Council  supreme  at 
Windsor  or  Greenwich.  Concurrently  with  this  enactment,  the 
whole  body  of  law,  which  successive  Parliaments  had  passed 
for  England,  was  introduced  into  Ireland  and  given  full  effect ; 
this  sweeping  change  must  have  likewise  tended,  not  only  to 
improve  the  course  of  justice,  and  the  security  of  property 
and  private  rights,  but  also  to  add  to  the  power  of  the 
Monarchy,  as  far  as  this,  for  the  present,  extended.  Yet  these 
measures,  far-reaching  as  they  seemed,  were  of  much  less 
importance  than  another  reform,  especially  known  as  "Poynings' 
Law,"  which  had  great  and  permanent  results  in  Irish  affairs, 
though  this  may  not  have  been  the  design  of  its  authors.  The 
Viceroys  of  Ireland  had,  hitherto,  convened  Parliaments  almost 
as  they  pleased ;  one  Parliament  had  voted  a  crown  to  Simnel, 


62  Ireland.  [Chap. 

another  Jiad  perhaps  dechired  him  a  traitor ;  and  these  assem- 
blies, often  irregularly  convened,  had  been  usually  mere  instru- 
ments of  the  men  in  power  at  the  Castle,  or  of  the  great  and 
tyrannical  feudal  nobles.  Their  legislation  had  thus  been 
repeatedly  inconsistent,  harsh,  and  unwise ;  and  it  had  been, 
in  many  instances,  marked  by  oppression,  and  iniquity  to  the 
colonists  of  the  Pale.  It  was,  therefore,  deemed  advisable  to 
secure  the  control,  and  even  the  initiative  of  making  lav/s,  to 
the  Crown;  and  it  was  enacted,  "that  no  Parliament  should  in 
future  be  holden  in  Ireland,  till  the  king's  lieutenant  should 
certify  to  the  king,  under  the  great  seal,  the  causes  and 
considerations,  and  all  such  acts  as  it  seems  to  them  ought  to 
be  passed  thereon,  and  such  be  affirmed  by  the  king  and  his 
council,  and  his  licence  to  hold  a  parliament  be  obtained." 
This  provision,  Hallam  has  justly  remarked,  "placed  a  bridle 
in  the  mouth  of  every  Irish  Parliament,'^  for  it  made  the  king 
and  his  council  the  sole  arbiters  of  what  it  was  to  attempt  or 
accomplish;  and  possibly  we  may  see  the  profound  Tudor 
statecraft,  in  this  effective,  but  indirect,  stroke  of  policy.  But 
the  authority  given  to  the  Crown  and  its  ministers,  which 
assured  the  subjection  of  the  Irish  Parliament,  and  which,  in 
subsequent  times,  was  fiercely  denounced,  was  certainly  re- 
garded, for  many  years,  as  a  protection  against  Viceregal 
oppression  and  feudal  excesses,  within  the  borders  of  the  Pale  \ 
The  rule  of  Poynings,  however,  was  but  for  a  moment;  and 
parts  of  his  work  were  to  disappear  with  it,  if  parts  were 
ultimately  to  prove  enduring.  The  Deputy  represented  the 
"English  interest";  the  Anglo-Norman  "interest"  of  the  Pale 
resented  an  ascendency  it  had  always  hated,  and  what  it 
deemed  an  attack  on  its  rights ;  and  throughout  Ireland  the 
thousands  of   Kildare's  adherents,   of  both   races,   stirred   in 

^  This  is  proved  by  the  repeated  requests  of  the  Englishry  of  the  Pale, 
in  the  sixteenth  century,  that  Poynings'  Law  should  not  be  suspended. 
See  too  the  remarkable  speech  of  Flood  on  this  subject. 


III.]  Ireland  during  the  Tudor  period,  63 

threatening  wrath.  Desmonds  and  even  Ormonds  joined  in 
complaints,  with  chiefs  of  Celtic  tribes  in  the  North  and  the 
West ;  and  Poynings,  besides,  had  been  unfortunate  in  a 
skirmish  beyond  the  verge  of  the  Pale.  The  story  has  often 
been  told  of  the  Earl's  conduct,  when  summoned  before 
Henry  VII  and  his  Council.  "I  will  take  your  Highness  as 
my  advocate  against  these  ftdse  knaves,"  he  is  said  to  have 
exclaimed,  with  adroit  flattery ;  and  he  brazened  out  a  charge, 
that  he  had  burned  the  cathedral  of  Armagh,  by  adding,  with 
ready  wit,  "  that  he  only  thought  of  burning  the  bishop," 
perhaps  a  prelate  of  questionable  fame.  The  king  answered 
the  protest  of  the  indignant  Council  that  "all  Ireland  cannot 
govern  this  man,"  by  retorting  "  this  man  then  shall  govern  all 
Ireland";  and  within  a  few  days  Poynings  Avas  recalled,  and 
Kildare,  restored  to  his  lands  and  honours,  was  made  chief 
ruler  of  Ireland  again,  the  attainted  traitor,  too,  having  become 
a  kinsman  of  the  House  of  Tudor,  by  a  great  English  marriage. 
Whether  true  or  not,  the  tale  proves  how  weak  and  vacillating, 
as  regards  the  affairs  of  Ireland,  was  English  policy  at  this 
period ;  but  probably  it  represents  the  king  as  more  fickle 
and  pusillanimous  than  he  really  was.  He  seems  to  have 
been  menaced  by  an  armed  Irish  rising,  more  formidable  than 
had  occurred  for  years ;  he  was  entangled  in  difficult  disputes 
with  Scotland;  and  the  power  of  the  O'Neills,  kinsmen  and 
allies  of  Kildare,  was,  perhaps,  required  to  keep  down  the 
Scottish  settlers,  who  had  established  themselves  on  the  coast 
of  Ulster,  and  who,  apparently,  were  sometimes  harrying  the 
Pale.  It  deserves  notice  that,  just  at  this  time,  Henry  invoked 
the  aid  of  Alexander  VI  to  restore  order  and  peace  in  Ireland, 
through  a  Commission  of  which  the  heads  were  the  chief 
English  bishops. 

The  return  of  Kildare  to  power  restored  the  ascendency  of 
his  House,  and  of  Anglo-Norman  rule,  and  caused  the  defeat 
in   Ireland    of  the   "English   interest."     The    Earl,    however. 


64  Ireland.  [Chap. 

upheld  most  of  the  reforms  of  Poynings,  and  proved  himself  to 
be  a  very  able  governor,  and  a  loyal  subject  of  the  Tudor 
monarchy.     His  immense  influence  in   Ireland   continued  to 
grow,  through   the  authority  with  the  great  nobles,  and  the 
supremacy  over  the  Celtic  chiefs,  which  he  owed,  in  part  at 
least,  to  his  high  qualities ;  he  exercised  it  with  conspicuous 
skill  and  success.     He  repelled,  with  his   Desmond  kindred, 
an  attempt  made  by  Perkin  Warbeck  to  attack  Cork ;  carried 
the  arms  of  the   Crown  far  beyond  the   Pale,  in  "hostings" 
against  the  "Irish  enemy";  and  yet  commanded  the  reverence 
of  many  an  Irish  chief,  even  besides  those  allied  to  his  House, 
for  power  always  has  a  fascination  for  the  Celt.     The  most 
remarkable  of  these  exploits  was  his  victory  over  the  Celts  of 
Connaught,  led  by  one  of  "the  degenerate  De  Burghs";  they 
perished  in  thousands  on  the  field  of  Cnocktue ;  this  decisive 
triumph  marked  the  turn  in  the  tide  which  had  set  against  the 
Englishry  for  a  long  space  of  time,  and  drew  forth  a  savage  ex- 
clamation from  one  of  the  nobles  of  the  Pale,  significant  of  their 
sense  of  the  humiliations  of  the  past.     Kildare,  too,  seems  to 
have  been  an  upright  ruler  of  the  land,  of  which  he  was  all  but 
the  sovereign;  he  received  the  Garter  and  gifts  of  lands  from  his 
grateful  king,  and  a  brief  season  of  peace  was  seen  in  Ireland, 
during  the  later  years  of  his  reign  as  governor. 

The  great  House  of  Kildare,  indeed,  at  this  time  shone  out 
with  a  lustre  which  made  it  prominent,  even  among  the  most 
noble  Houses  of  England,  and  which  mournfully  contrasts 
with  the  darkness  of  its  fall.  Gerald  was  a  patron  of  art  and 
science ;  he  felt  the  intellectual  movement  of  his  age ;  the 
learned  student,  the  canvas  fresh  from  Italian  hands,  the 
library  filled  with  goodly  volumes,  were  seen  in  his  stately 
castles  amidst  the  throng  of  his  men-at-arms  and  Celtic  kerne, 
and  among  the  minstrels  and  bards  of  chiefs  of  the  Irishry. 
At  Maynooth,  at  Glyn,  at  Dingle,  at  Youghal,  from  the  verge 
of  the    Pale    to    the    far   plains    of  Kerry,    the   glory   of  the 


III.]  Ireland  during  t/ie   Tudor  period,  65 

Renaissance  was  not  wanting  in  his  halls,  and  in  those  of  his 
Desmond  cousins;  it  blended  with  the  pomp  and  circumstance 
of  feudal  grandeur  and  war,  and  with  whatever  remained  of  the 
poetry  and  art  of  the  native  Irish  race.  Ariosto  recorded,  in 
graceful  verse,  what  the  Geraldines  were  in  this  day  of  their 
renown';  and  the  Ghirardini,  beside  the  Arno,  rejoiced  to 
learn,  from  the  Great  Earl  himself,  how  mighty  was  their  name, 
in  a  far  island  of  the  West^ 

The  Great  Earl  was  slain  in  15 13,  in  a  skirmish  with  one 
of  the  chiefs  of  Offaley.  The  chronicles  of  both  the  races  in 
Ireland  agree  in  describing  him  as  a  most  remarkable  man ;  he 
had  ruled  the  country,  too,  for  nearly  the  third  of  a  century. 
He  was  succeeded  as  Deputy  by  his  son  Gerald,  called  also 
the  "Great"  in  Celtic  annals;  but,  if  a  gallant  warrior,  and 
not  devoid  of  parts,  apparently  without  his  father's  resource, 
not  skilled  in  reading  the  signs  of  the  times,  and  destined  to 
a  most  unhappy  fate.  The  Earl  trode,  for  some  years,  in  his 
predecessor's  footsteps ;  crushed  Irish  risings  beyond  the  Pale ; 
extended  the  now  advancing  power  of  the  Englishry ;  and, 
save  that  he  was  often  at  feud  with  his  Ormond  kindred, 
maintained  the  ascendency  of  his  House  unchallenged.  By 
this  time  Henry  VII  had  died,  and  his  son  Henry  VIII  had 
ascended  the  throne ;  but  England  was  still  being  dragged  in 
the  wake  of  Spain  ;  the  young  King  was  involved  in  wars  with 
France ;  and,  as  had  happened  over  and  over  again,  the  affairs  of 
Ireland  attracted  little  attention.     The  fortune  of  the  House  of 

*  See  the  Orlando  Fnrioso,  Canto  X.  Stanzas  87-8  : 
"  Sono  due  squadre,  e  il  conte  di  Childera 
Mena  la  prima  ;    e  il  conte  di  Desmonda 
Da  fieri  nionti  ha  tratta  la  seconda. 
Nello  stendardo,  il  primo  ha  un  pino  ardente; 
L'  altro  nel  bianco  una  vermiglia  banda." 
^  See  the  letter  of  the  Earl  in  The  Earls  of  Kildare,  by  the  Duke  of 
Leinster,  p.  64. 

M.  I.  c 


66  Ireland.  [Chap. 

Kildare  seemed  at  its  topmost  height,  when  the  Earl  attended 
Henry  to  the  Field  of  the  Cloth  of  Gold,  and,  like  his  father, 
wedded  a  near  relation  of  the  King. 

The  change,  meanwhile,  which,  for  some  years,  had  been 
passing  over  the  English  Monarchy,  was  beginning  to  produce 
its  effects  in  Ireland.  The  dynasty  of  the  Tudors  had,  by 
degrees,  acquired  stability,  and  was  growing  in  strength ;  the 
power  of  feudalism  was  passing  away,  with  the  decline  of  the 
great  nobles,  in  a  new  era;  and  Wolsey,  the  Richelieu  of  his 
day,  was  extending  the  influence  of  the  Crown  in  every 
direction,  and  turning  the  government  into  a  scarcely  veiled 
despotism.  It  was  impossible  that  these  tendencies  should 
not  affect  Ireland ;  and  the  condition  of  the  island,  where  a 
still  struggling  colony  with  difficulty  maintained  the  English 
name,  and  where  feudal  and  Celtic  chaos  prevailed  in  the 
great  tracts  beyond  the  still  narrow  Pale,  seemed  to  invite  the 
presence  of  Royal  authority,  to  subjugate,  to  civilise,  and  to 
enlarge  the  domain  of  order.  The  state  papers  of  the  time 
had  begun  to  teem  with  accounts  of  the  misrule  of  the  Anglo- 
Norman  lords,  of  the  barbarism  of  the  Celtic  chiefs,  and  of  the 
wretchedness  of  a  community  the  prey  of  lawlessness  and 
incessant  wars ;  and  numerous  schemes  had  been  proposed, 
especially  by  English  observers  on  the  spot,  for  reducing  the 
country  to  complete  subjection,  and  putting  an  end  to  disorder 
and  anarchy,  by  making  the  power  of  the  Crown  absolute,  and 
by  colonisation  following  a  thorough  conquest.  Under  the 
influence,  probably,  of  views  of  this  kind,  another  turn  occurred 
in  the  affairs  of  Ireland ;  Kildare,  though  apparently  still  in 
power,  was  removed  from  his  government  in  1520;  and  Lord 
Surrey,  the  son  of  the  victor  of  Flodden,  one  of  the  most 
trusted  of  Henry's  soldiers  and  statesmen,  was  placed  in  his 
stead,  as  Viceroy,  with  the  fullest  powers.  The  counsels  of 
Surrey  were  in  accord  with  the  new  policy  just  referred  to; 
and  stern  and  harsh  as  they  certainly  were,  it  is  to  be  regretted, 


III.]  Ireland  during  the   Tudor  period.  6/ 

perhaps,  that  they  were  not  followed,  as  we  watch  the  sub- 
sequent course  of  Irish  History.  Surrey,  full  of  the  absolutist 
ideas  of  the  time,  was  all  for  making  the  king  supreme  in 
Ireland,  the  uncontrolled  master,  in  fact,  of  everything;  and 
he  advised  that  the  country  should  be  subdued  once  for  all, 
and  should  be  effectively  colonised  by  English  settlers,  intro- 
duced in  such  numbers  as  to  secure  their  ascendency.  But  he 
warned  the  king  that  the  task  would  be  long  and  difficult, 
owing  to  the  extent  of  Ireland,  and  the  many  obstacles  the 
island  presents  to  an  invading  enemy;  to  people  it,  too,  with 
Englishmen,  sent  from  a  distance,  across  the  sea,  would  be  far 
from  easy;  and  a  considerable  military  force  would  be  re- 
quired. "This  land,"  he  wrote  with  just  insight,  "is  five 
times  as  large  as  Wales,  and  when  King  Edward  I  set  on 
hand  to  conquer  the  same,  it  cost  him  ten  years  ere  he  won  it 
all,  although  for  the  most  part  he  was  present  in  his  own 
person  ;  and  there  is  no  sea  between  England  and  Wales.     I 

fear  therefore  it  cannot  be  so  soon  won  as  Wales  was 6000 

men  is  the  least  number  you  must  occupy  \" 

This  policy,  however,  singularly  like  the  "Thorough"  of 
Strafford  in  another  age,  much  as  it  may  have  been  approved 
by  Wolsey,  ran  counter  to  the  inclinations  of  the  king,  and 
was  rejected  by  him  through  all  the  troubles  of  his  reign. 
Henry  VIII  was  a  tyrant,  in  many  of  his  acts ;  History 
sternly  condemns  his  savage  temper,  and  his  selfishness  almost 
without  a  parallel ;  but  a  Celt  himself,  to  a  certain  extent,  he 
had  genuine  sympathy  with  a  Celtic  race ;  and  he  had  formed 
views  on  Ireland  and  Irish  government,  remarkable  for  their 
enlightened  wisdom,  the  best,  perhaps,  considering  the  circum- 
stances of  the  time,  that  were  ever  conceived  by  an  English 
statesman.  He  turned  a  deaf  ear  to  the  argument  of  force, 
and  refused  to  listen  to  plans  for  conquering  Ireland  with  the 

1  State    Papers.     Carew   I.    18.     Surrey   to   Henry  VIII.     June    30, 
1521. 

5—2 


68  Ireland.  [Chap. 

sword,  and  for  "planting"  the  whole  country  with  English 
colonies.  He  wished,  indeed,  to  be  a  real  king  in  Ireland, 
and  to  make  his  kingship  a  good  influence ;  to  remove  or  to 
lessen  the  ills  that  afflicted  the  people;  to  promote  order  and 
the  authority  of  law;  in  his  own  words,  "to  heal  the  great 
decay  of  that  fertile  land  for  lack  of  politic  governance  and 
good  justice";  and  he  had  a  scheme  of  his  own  to  attain 
these  objects.  His  idea  was  to  make  the  power  of  the  Crown 
felt  everywhere,  alike  by  the  Anglo-Norman  nobles,  and  by  the 
all  but  independent  chiefs  of  the  Irishry,  but  to  accomplish 
this  by  kindness,  not  by  the  strong  hand ;  and,  with  this  end 
in  view,  he  desired  to  confer  honours  on  them,  to  bind  them 
to  the  Crown  by  the  tie  of  gratitude,  and  through  them  to  rule 
the  whole  Irish  community.  The  Monarchy  would  thus  be 
supreme  in  Ireland ;  it  would  gradually  bring  good  govern- 
ment and  peace  with  it ;  but  it  would  rest  on  an  aristocracy 
of  Irish  origin ;  and  without  violent  or  dangerous  change,  it 
would  make  its  benefits  felt  through  all  ranks  of  the  people. 
It  is  remarkable,  too,  that  Henry  perceived  that  the  law  of  the 
Anglo-Saxon  was  ill  fitted  to  win  the  sympathy  of  a  Celtic 
race ;  and  he  sought  to  respect  the  Celtic  usages  in  his  project 
for  governing  Ireland  as  a  whole.  "Show  unto  the  Irish 
lords,"   he   wrote  to  Surrey,    "  that  it   is   requisite  that  every 

reasonable   creature    be  governed   by  a   law But  if  they 

allege  that  our  laws  be  too  extreme  and  rigorous ye  may 

ensearch  of  them,  under  what  manners,  and  by  what  laws,  they 
will  be  ordered  and  governed,  to  the  intent  that  if  their  laws  be 
good  and  reasonable,  they  may  be  approved  \" 

Henry,  we  shall  see,  did  not  renounce  this  policy,  though  ~ 
events  told  strongly  against  it  afterwards.  Surrey  was  recalled 
from  Ireland  to  conduct  a  campaign  in  France;  and  Kildare, 
after  a  brief  interval  of  time — he  had  become  an  object  of 
suspicion  to  the  king — was  restored  to  his  estate  as  Deputy. 
^  State  Papers  ii.  52,  53.     Froude's  History  \\.  263. 


III.]  Ireland  during  the  Tudor  period.  69 

Years  passed,  in  which  Wolsey  and  his  master  were  engaged 
in  vast  designs  of  conquest    abroad,    in    trying    to    hold    the 
balance  between  France  and  the  Empire,  in  keeping  down  the 
power  of  the  House  of  Commons ;   Ireland  once  more  almost 
passed  out  of  sight.     Kildare  continued  to  rule  as  before ;  but 
he  was  jealously  watched  by  his  Ormond  enemies — his  sister, 
the  "  Great  Countess,"  was  the  chief  of  these — and  complaints 
were  repeatedly  made  of  his  conduct.    Long  impunity,  however, 
made    him    incautious;   he   wrecked    the    Pale   with   the   old 
exactions  of  his  House,  levying  "coyne  and  livery"  in  defiance 
of  the  law ;  he  married  two  of  his  daughters  to  Irish  chiefs, 
O'Connor  and  O'Carroll,  whose  tribes   had   been  for  ages   a 
thorn  in  the  side  of  the  Englishry,  for  their  territories  lay  on 
the  verge   of  the    Pale;  and  he   was  looked   up  to  as  their 
suzerain  by  the  Celtic  clans  and  septs,    from    the   ranges   of 
Ulster   to   the  far  hills  of  Kerry.     He  was  accused,  too,  of 
dabbling   in   treason,    and   of    treating   with    Francis    I    and 
Charles  V,  when  at  war  with  England,  througli  his  Desmond 
kindred;    and    in    1527    he   was   imprisoned   in   the   Tower. 
Wolsey  scornfully    denounced   him,   "as  King  Kildare,    who 
reigned  rather  than  ruled  in  Ireland  " ;  but  he  was  ere  long  set 
free,  and  allowed  to  return  to  Ireland,  his  connexion  with  the 
Tudors  standing  him,  perhaps,  in  stead.     He  had  soon  thrust 
aside  a  Deputy,  Skeffington,  who  had  been  set  as  a  kind  of 
watch  on  his  acts;  and  in  1532  he  was  again  at  the  head  of 
affairs  in  Ireland,   as   Deputy  of  the  king's  natural  son,  the 
young  Duke  of  Richmond. 

The  triumph  of  the  Earl,  it  appears,  impelled  him  into  most 
dangerous  and  unwise  courses.  He  dismissed  the  Archbishop 
of  Dublin  from  his  place  as  Chancellor ;  kept  the  Council  at 
the  Castle  in  a  state  of  terror;  interfered  with  the  judges  in  the 
administration  of  the  law ;  ruled,  in  a  word,  as  his  fathers  had 
ruled  in  a  different  age.  He  also  carried  fire  and  sword 
through  the  lands  of  the  Butlers,  at  this  moment  powerful  at 


70  Ireland.  [Chap. 

Court,  from  their  relationship  with  the  rising  star,  Anne 
Boleyn';  and  he  was  charged  with  encouraging  chiefs  of  the 
Irishry  to  make  inroads  upon  the  borders  of  the  Pale.  All 
this,  however,  might  have  gone  for  nothing,  had  he  not  at 
a  most  critical  juncture  been  suspected,  at  least,  of  fresh  acts 
of  treason.  By  this  time  the  divorce  of  Catherine  had  caused 
the  sudden  disgrace  of  Wolsey ;  the  Church  in  England  was 
being  severed  from  Rome ;  and  Henry,  backed  by  the  mass  of 
the  nation,  but  opposed  by  many  of  the  nobility,  and  nine- 
tenths  of  the  clergy,  was  threatened  by  Charles  V  and 
Clement  VII.  The  air  in  England  was  thick  with  sinister 
rumours ;  it  seemed  not  improbable  that  risings  at  home  might 
find  support  from  enemies  abroad.  Kildare  corresponded, 
perhaps,  with  the  Emperor,  through  the  Desmonds,  as  may 
have  been  the  case  before ;  the  time  for  trifling  and  hesitation 
had  passed;  in  1534  he  was  once  more  a  prisoner  in  the 
Tower.  He  seems  to  have  had  a  foreboding  that  evil  days 
were  at  hand ;  he  appointed  Thomas,  his  eldest  son,  to  act  as 
his  Vice-deputy ;  he  certainly  removed  the  artillery  of  Dublin 
Castle  to  Maynooth  and  other  fortresses  of  his  own ;  and 
possibly  he  hoped  that  rebellion  would  come  to  his  aid  -. 

Lord  Thomas  Fitzgerald  was  a  mere  youth,  not  without 
parts,  but  hot-headed  and  rash;  a  report  that  "his  father  had 
been  cut  shorter,  as  his  issue  should  bee,"  sent  him  on  the  path 
that  led  to  the  ruin  of  his  House.  Despising  the  warnings  of 
the  chief  Geraldines,  he  lent  an  ear  to  the  counsels  of  his 
leading  Celtic  kinsmen  ;    and    "  assurying   himselfe   that   the 

^  Margaret,  the  daughter  of  Thomas,  seventh  Earl  of  Ormond,  married 
Sir  WilUam  Boleyn,  and  was  the  grandmother  of  the  future  Queen  Anne. 
Her  son  Sir  Thomas  Boleyn  became  Earl  of  Ormond ;  the  head  of  the 
Butlers,  Pierce,  accepting  the  lesser  title  of  Earl  of  Ossory. 

-  The  act  of  attainder  of  Kildare  is  the  principal,  almost  the  only, 
evidence  of  his  conduct ;  a  judicious  enquirer  will  not  rely  too  confidently 
on  a  Tudor  act  of  attainder. 


III.]  Ireland  during  the  Tudor  period.  yi 

knot  of  all  Ireland  was  twisted  under  his  girdle,"  he  rushed 
madly  into  a  war  with  England.  He  rode  through  Dublin  at 
the  head  of  a  band  of  retainers ;  flung  the  sword  of  state 
on  the  table  of  the  amazed  Council,  and  having  denounced 
the  King  in  impassioned  language,  declared  that  "he  would 
meet  him  in  the  field,  not  serve  him  in  office."  Celtic  harpers 
greeted  him  as  "  Silken  Thomas  " — a  badge  of  silk  was  on  the 
helmets  of  his  men — and  bade  him  "not  to  tarry  any  more"; 
he  strode  wildly  forth  to  assemble  his  forces.  He  was  soon 
the  leader  of  a  motley  array,  chiefly  of  Celtic  Kerne  from  the 
borders  of  the  Pale ;  and  he  urged  the  heads  of  the  Butlers  to 
take  up  arms,  "  offering  to  divide  the  realme  of  Ireland  with 
them."  He  had  ere  long  sent  envoys  to  the  Pope  and  to 
Charles  V ;  the  hour  had  come  "  to  punish  Henry  for  his 
heresy,   lechery,  and  tyranny." 

Foreign  aid,  however,  as  was  seen  afterwards,  proved  a 
light  of  false  hope  to  Irish  rebellion ;  no  armament  from 
abroad  was  sent  to  Fitzgerald.  The  Butlers,  too,  scorned  the 
ofl"ers  of  their  foe  ;  the  Geraldines  of  Munster  kept  aloof;  the 
rising,  in  the  main,  was  a  Celtic  raid  sustained  by  the  retainers 
of  Kildare  in  the  Pale.  Yet  the  dominion  of  England  was  for 
some  months  in  peril,  so  precarious  even  now  was  her  hold 
upon  Ireland.  DubHn  had  been  wasted  by  a  destructive 
plague ;  the  citizens,  weakened  and  disheartened,  agreed  to 
open  their  gates  to  Silken  Thomas;  and  though  afterwards 
they  plucked  up  courage  to  resist,  the  Castle  was  besieged  by  a 
large  rebel  force,  and,  being  without  ordnance,  was  in  grave 
danger.  Meanwhile  the  Archbishop,  who  had  been  deprived 
of  the  seals,  was  murdered  in  an  attempt  to  escape  ;  Fitzgerald 
closed  the  capital  by  his  sails  in  the  Bay ;  and  ihe  habitations 
of  the  loyal  settlers  of  the  Pale  were  ravaged  by  plundering 
swarms  of  banditti.  An  armed  force  was  despatched  from 
England  ;  but  its  march  across  the  Welsh  mountains  was  slow ; 
it  was  retarded  by  contrary  winds  for  weeks;  and  its   com- 


72  Ireland.  [Chap. 

mander,  Skeflington,  the  late  Deputy,  hesitated,  for  some  time, 
to  try  to  retake  Dublin.  Soon  after  its  landing  Fitzgerald 
attacked  and  cut  off  one  of  its  detachments;  the  troops  were 
unable  to  prevent  the  destruction  of  Trim,  the  chief  town 
of  Meath,  and  of  the  large  village  of  Dunboyne.  Skeffington, 
too,  fell  ill,  and,  during  a  whole  winter,  the  English  army 
simply  did  nothing.  But  for  the  energy  of  the  Butlers,  the 
Pale  might  have  been  lost,  and  a  new  conquest  of  Ireland  have 
been  made  necessary.  These  feudal  enemies  of  Kildare, 
however,  invaded  his  lands,  and  wrecked  his  castles ;  they 
compelled  Lord  Thomas  to  raise  the  siege  of  Dublin ;  in 
a  word  they  held  him  in  check  by  a  predatory  war. 

Skeffington  was,  at  last,  on  foot,  in  the  spring  of  1535, 
The  object  of  his  attack  was  the  Castle  of  Maynooth,  a  great 
stronghold  from  which  the  Geraldines  had  often  issued  with 
their  feudal  arrays  to  overrun  the  Pale,  and  the  Land  of  the 
Celt.  The  fortress  had  always  been  deemed  impregnable ; 
but  the  Tudors  had  made  their  artillery  a  formidable  arm ; 
and  a  breach  was  made  ere  long  in  the  external  defences.  It 
is  uncertain  whether  the  place  yielded  to  treachery,  at  last, 
or  to  fair  fighting;  but  the  garrison  was,  to  a  man,  butchered  ; 
and  the  Irish  Annals  have  bitterly  denounced  the  "  Pardon 
of  Maynooth."  The  victors  exacted  a  savage  vengeance  from 
Gerald ine  retainers  who  fell  into  their  hands ;  the  territories 
of  the  Kildares  became  the  spoil  of  their  swords  ;  and  in  a 
few  weeks  the  rebellion  collapsed.  Lord  Thomas,  who  had 
retreated  beyond  the  Shannon,  in  the  hope  of  stirring  up  the 
Celts  of  Connaught,  found  himself  deserted  by  his  late  allies ; 
the  chiefs,  who  had  thronged  to  his  standards,  forsook  him 
and  fled,  carried  away  by  panic  or  the  fickleness  of  the  Celt ; 
characteristically  they  betrayed  and  turned  against  each  other, 
when  the  Englishry  had  made  their  power  felt.  The  un- 
fortunate youth  surrendered  to  Lord  Leonard  Grey — the 
brother-in-law  of  his  father — who  had   replaced    Skeffington, 


III.]  Ireland  during  the   Tudor  period.  73 

at  least  in  ihe  command  of  the  army;  and  "the  words  of 
comfort"  he  confessedly  "spoke"  were,  perhaps,  a  promise 
that  his  prisoner's  life  was  to  be  spared.  Earl  Gerald  had 
ended  his  days,  a  few  months  before,  in  the  Tower. 

The  conduct  of  Henry,  at  this  juncture,  was  singularly 
characteristic  of  the  man.  The  weakness  of  the  Irishry  had 
been  made  manifest ;  the  king,  in  a  sudden  fit  of  wrath,  took 
counsel  whether  the  whole  of  Ireland  could  not  be  confiscated 
and  made  the  prize  of  the  Crown.  He  gave  up,  however,  this 
extreme  purpose,  and  had  soon  returned  to  the  wise  policy, 
which  really  he  had  never  abandoned.  But  he  laid  a  heavy 
hand  on  rebellion  ;  he  was  embarrassed  by  Lord  Leonard 
Grey's  language,  but  Silken  Thomas  was  sent  before  long  to 
the  block ;  five  of  his  uncles  perished  by  the  same  sentence, 
two,  apparently,  without  any  proof  of  guilt ;  and  the  House 
of  Kildare  was  struck  down  by  a  sweeping  attainder.  A 
child,  afterwards  Gerald,  the  eleventh  Earl,  was  the  only  scion 
left  of  the  ancient  family  which  had  overshadowed  Ireland 
with  its  power;  his  safety  was  due  to  a  mere  accident.  His 
kinswoman  Mary^,  wife  of  Brian  O'Connor,  chief  of  the  greatest 
tribe  on  the  edge  of  the  Pale,  carried  him  into  the  difficult 
wilds  of  Oftaley;  the  act  of  pioiis  care  still  lives  in  Celtic 
tradition. 

An  invasion  made  by  Grey — he  had  become  Deputy — • 
into  the  territories  of  the  Desmonds,  and  beyond  the  Shannon, 
marked  the  final  close  of  the  great  rising  of  1534.  Meanwhile 
events  in  England  had  widened  the  breach  between  the  Tudor 
Monarchy  and  Rome ;  the  Reformation  had  begun  in  a 
complete  change  in  the  ecclesiastical  order  which  had  pre- 
vailed for  centuries.  Henry  VIII  had  declared  himself 
supreme  Head  of  the  Church ;  the  Episcopate  had  been  made 

^  Daughter  of  Gerald  the  ninth  Earl,  aunt  of  the  eleventh,  and  half- 
sister  of  Surrey's  fair  Geraldine.     llie  Earls  of  Kildare ^  pp.  121,  125. 


74  I  J' el  and.  [Chap. 

an  instrument  of  the  Crown ;  the  Religious  Houses  were  being 
swept  away ;  and  Thomas  Cromwell,  with  a  ruthless  but  steady- 
hand,  was  effectually  crushing  resistance  down.  That  a  cor- 
responding revolution  should  take  place  in  Ireland  was  ac- 
cepted as  a  matter  of  course;  the  example  of  the  greater 
country  should  be  followed  by  the  less ;  Henry  turned  his 
attention  to  the  twofold  Irish  Church.  This  institution  had 
been,  in  some  respects,  modified  during  the  course  of  the 
preceding  century  and  a  half.  The  Church  of  the  Pale  had 
extended  its  bounds  so  far  as  regards  the  heads  of  the  clergy ; 
more  sees  than  of  old  were  filled  by  Englishmen,  for  the  Lan- 
castrian kings  and  Henry  VII  had  courted  the  Popes ;  and 
this  was  the  case,  too,  with  the  best  benefices.  On  the  other 
hand,  the  Irish  chiefs  seem  to  have  altogether  lost  their  au- 
thority over  the  ancient  Celtic  Church ;  the  Popes  nominated 
some  of  the  Bishops  ;  it  was  crowded  by  a  priesthood  de- 
pendent on  Rome,  in  defiance  of  celebrated  English  statutes ; 
it  was  putting  off  its  native  complexion,  and  gradually  be- 
coming more  and  more  Papal.  The  long  standing  feud  between 
the  two  Churches  remained,  however,  as  bitter  as  before ;  the 
Church  of  the  Englishry  was  to  the  Church  of  the  Irishry,  what 
the  Jew  was  to  the  despised  Samaritan;  each  embodied  the 
discord  of  separate  races. 

Meanwhile  the  corruption  of  the  fifteenth  century  had 
deeply  affected  both  Churches  ;  low  as  had  been  the  state 
of  their  spiritual  life,  this  seems  to  have  become  even  lower 
than  before.  Religious  houses  and  buildings,  indeed,  multi- 
plied ;  the  land  was  strown  with  edifices,  in  too  many  instances 
emblems  of  superstition  subdued  by  priestcraft.  But  if  con- 
temporaneous evidence  speaks  truth,  crime,  profligacy,  in- 
dolence, neglect  of  duty  prevailed,  far  and  near,  in  the  two 
communions ;  the  light  within  them  had  become  darkness. 
Several  dignitaries  of  the  Church  of  the  Pale  were  at  least 
charged  with  atrocious  deeds ;  an  archdeacon  was  hanged  for 


III.]  Ireland  during  the  Tudor  period.  75 

murder  in  1525^;  and  Bishops  of  the  Celtic  Church  were 
described  as  men  of  blood  and  violence.  Simony  and  waste 
ran  riot  in  many  sees ;  hundreds  of  churches,  it  was  asserted, 
lay  in  ruins ;  whole  dioceses  were  left  without  a  due  supply 
of  ministers.  Some  monasteries,  as  in  England,  did  good 
work  in  teaching;  the  great  majority,  it  has  been  written, 
abounded  in  sloth,  incontinence,  and  all  kinds  of  vices.  The 
worst  abuses  were,  perhaps,  found  where  the  influence  of  the 
distant  Pontiffs  was  strongest ;  the  "  Bishops  of  Rome " — 
exaggerated  as  may  have  been  the  language — were  denounced, 
*'for  having  preferred  to  the  administration  and  governance 
of  many  parishes,  vile  and  vicious  persons,  unlearned,  being 
murderers,  thieves,  and  of  detestable  dispositions^."  As  of 
old,  however,  intellectual  torpor  was  perhaps  the  most  striking 
feature  of  either  Church.  England  had  had  a  crowd  of  dis- 
tinguished churchmen,  even  during  the  evil  days  of  the 
fifteenth  century.  Wolsey,  the  foremost  statesman  of  his  time, 
made  the  diffusion  of  education  his  special  care;  VVarham, 
Fisher,  and  others  were  eminent  Prelates.  But  in  the  age  of 
Erasmus,  of  Colet,  of  More,  the  Church  of  the  Pale  and  the 
Celtic  Church  remained  in  Ireland  in  outer  darkness ;  the 
movement  of  the  Renaissance  had  scarcely  any  influence  on 
an  ill-informed  and  superstitious  priesthood,  not  a  single  ec- 
clesiastic made  a  conspicuous  mark  in  Theology,  Science,  or 
the  New  Learning.  The  laity,  for  the  most  part,  were  in  the 
same  state  of  ignorance ;  "  LoUardry  "  had  been  scarcely  heard 
of,  even  in  the  Pale;  it  was  wholly  unknown  in  the  land  of 
the  Celt.  The  community  had  hardly  felt  the  rays  of  the 
day-spring  already  high  in  the  heavens. 

The  attempt  to  reform  the  Irish  Churches  followed  the 
precedents  that  had  been  set  in  England,  and  was  conducted 
upon  the  English  model.     The  chief  instrument  employed  by 

^  The  Earls  of  Kildare,  p.  97. 
2  Carew  Papers,  31  May,  1534. 


76  Ireland.  [Chap. 

Henry  and  Cromwell  was  an  Englishman,  Browne,  Archbishop 
of  Dublin,  who  simply  endeavoured  to  obey  his  masters.  A 
Parliament  was  assembled  in  1536  ;  and,  imitating  what  had 
been  done  at  Westminster,  it  declared  the  King  the  Head  of 
the  Church  in  Ireland;  cut  off  that  Church  from  dependence 
on  Rome ;  made  the  Irish  Bishops  satellites  of  the  Crown ; 
and  began  the  dissolution  of  religious  houses.  A  subsequent 
Parliament  made  this  spoliation  complete :  monasteries  and 
nunneries  were  blotted  out  by  scores,  and  deprived  of  their 
broad  lands  and  possessions ;  and  a  change  was  effected 
besides,  that  must  have  appeared  significant.  The  Kings  of 
England  had  been  Lords  of  Ireland  only,  holding  the  land, 
under  the  old  bull  of  Adrian,  as  vassals,  in  theory,  of  the  Holy 
See ;  this  fiction  was,  once  for  all,  abolished ;  and  Henry 
assumed  the  title  of  King  of  the  island.  Reforms  in  doctrine 
and  ritual  were  not  made ;  but,  exactly  as  had  been  the  case  in 
England,  "idols"  were  thrown  down,  "shrines"  of  peculiar 
sanctity,  and  "Holy  Roods,"  especially  hallowed  by  Rome. 
The  jurisdiction  of  the  bishops  was  somewhat  enlarged,  no 
doubt  to  increase  the  Royal  authority;  and  a  singular  effort  was 
made  to  extend  English  influence,  by  securing  to  "  English- 
men" the  best  preferments,  and  by  the  establishment  of 
"Enghsh"  schools  apparently  within  the  limits  of  the  Pale. 

Reforms  like  these,  mere  experiments  of  foreign  power 
thrust  upon  a  community  that  could  hardly  heed  them,  must 
obviously  have  had  but  little  effect.  They  were  probably 
carried  out  in  the  Church  of  the  Pale  only,  and  were  scarcely 
heard  of  in  the  Church  of  the  Celt,  still  beyond  the  bounds  of 
the  Land  of  the  Englishry.  They  caused,  however,  some 
disorder  and  trouble  in  the  Pale ;  Browne  was  denounced  by 
Cromer,  the  Primate  of  Armagh;  and  there  were  bickerings 
between  Anglo-Norman  Lords,  for  the  most  part  blindly 
devoted  to  Rome,  and  the  administration  of  the  Castle  on  the 
spot.     But  there  was  no  Pilgrimage  of  Grace  in   Ireland,  no 


III.]  Ireland  during  tJie  Tudor  period.  77 

deaths  of  Catholic  or  Protestant  martyrs,  no  scenes  like  the 
murder  of  the  Carthusian  monks,  no  mighty  upheaval  of  social 
forces,  such  as  marked  the  Reformation  in  its  course  in 
England.  Religion,  ultimately  to  be  the  occasion  of  appalling 
woes,  did  not  as  yet  really  disturb  the  Irish  community ;  even 
the  suppression  of  the  religious  houses  seems  not  to  have 
called  out  a  word  of  protest.  The  agitation,  however,  such  as 
it  was,  in  the  Pale,  quickened  a  movement  of  a  more 
formidable  kind,  which  for  some  time  had  been  on  foot  in 
Ireland,  and  came,  to  a  certain  extent,  to  its  aid.  The  severity 
shown  by  Henry  to  the  House  of  Kildare,  the  conviction,  as  it 
was  said,  "that  the  King  would  never  rest,  until  he  had  had 
the  blood  of  the  Geraldine  race,"  had  exasperated  and  alarmed 
the  still  powerful  kinsmen  of  a  family,  but  yesterday  almost 
supreme  in  Ireland ;  and  these  began  to  contemplate  another 
rising.  Conn,  chief  of  the  warUke  tribe  of  the  O'Neills,  a 
descendant  of  the  royal  Hy-Niall  line,  and  nearly  allied  in 
blood  to  the  Earls  of  Kildare,  was  the  master  spirit  of  this  new 
league ;  but  Desmond  and  the  Geraldines  of  Munster  con- 
curred;  and  they  were  joined  by  other  chiefs  of  the  Celts  of 
the  South,  and  by  Brian  the  head,  as  we  have  said,  of  the  Celts 
of  Offaley,  all  connected  with  the  great  fallen  House.  Pre- 
parations were  made  to  attack  the  Englishry;  arms  were 
collected,  and  clans  mustered ;  and  the  late  reforms  in  the 
Church,  and  what  had  followed  from  them,  were  employed  to 
give  the  movement  a  religious  aspect,  and  to  invoke  foreign 
assistance  for  it.  Paul  III  and  Charles  V  were  adjured  to 
support  a  Holy  War  in  Ireland,  with  a  heretic  king ;  and  the 
Pope  certainly  seemed  to  lend  an  ear  to  these  prayers. 

The  rising,  however,  menacing  as  it  appeared,  though  it 
broke  out  in  places,  quickly  came  to  nothing.  The  pre- 
servation of  the  young  heir  of  the  Kildares  was,  probably,  a 
main  object  of  the  league ;  after  hair-breadth  escapes,  and  long 
wanderings  from  Offaley,  into  the  Desmond  lands,  the  child, 


7  8  Ireia?id.  [Chap. 

like  the  Charles  Edward  of  another  day,  was  loyally  passed  on 
from  clan  to  clan,  as  devoted  to  the  Geraldine  name,  as  to  the 
chiefs  of  their  own  race ;  and  he  made  at  last  his  way  into 
France,  still  pursued  by  Henry's  vindictive  hate.  Charles  V, 
too,  held  in  check  by  Francis  I,  and  even  inclining  to  an 
alliance  with  England,  had  no  thought  of  giving  aid  to 
Irish  rebels ;  Paul  III  was  powerless  without  the  emperor. 
The  intended  insurrection  never  came  to  a  head ;  O'Neill, 
indeed,  made  a  bold  attempt  to  march  southward,  and  join 
Desmond ;  but  he  was  defeated  at  Bellahoe,  on  the  edge  of 
the  Pale ;  and  the  Holy  War  ended  in  a  few  petty  raids. 
Grey  advanced,  for  the  second  time,  into  the  depths  of  the 
country;  the  march  of  his  troops  was  more  impeded  by  the 
difficulties  of  almost  impenetrable  tracts,  of  woods,  morasses, 
and  wild  hill  ranges,  than  by  enemies  worthy  of  the  name; 
and  though  the  subduing  of  those  obstacles  took  many  months, 
his  progress  met  scarcely  any  other  resistance.  Desmond  and 
his  Anglo-Norman  and  Celtic  dependents  sent  in  their  sub- 
missions throughout  Munster ;  and  their  example  was  followed 
by  the  Irish  chiefs  who  had  taken  part  in  the  late  conspiracy. 
The  Deputy  treated  all  with  praiseworthy  clemency,  and 
Henry  appears  to  have  approved  of  this  conduct.  But  Grey 
was  a  near  kinsman  of  the  House  of  Kildare ;  its  boyish  head 
had  contrived  to  escape ;  this,  and  a  quarrel  with  the  men  in 
power  at  the  Castle,  was  probably  the  cause  of  his  ill-explained 
fall.  He  was  denounced  by  the  Butlers,  as  a  friend  of  the 
Geraldines,  and  met  the  doom  of  a  traitor  a  few  weeks  after- 
wards, one  of  the  darkest  acts  of  a  sanguinary  reign. 

Ireland  was,  for  the  moment,  almost  in  repose;  Henry 
seized  the  occasion  to  give  effect  to  the  policy  he  had  thought 
out  for  the  country.  Heads  of  the  great  Anglo-Norman 
famiUes,  and  leading  chiefs  of  the  Celtic  tribes,  were  invited  to 
Court,  to  meet  the  king ;  and  a  real  effort  was  made  to  bind 
them  to  the  state,  by  the  ties  of  self-interest,  and  of  the  sense 


III.]  Ireland  during  the  Tudor  period.  79 

of  gratitude,  and  to  govern  Ireland  by  an  aristocracy  of  this 
kind.  Earldoms  were  conferred  on  O'Neill,  the  late  rebel 
warrior,  on  O'Brien,  chief  of  the  Celts  of  Thomond,  and  on 
the  head  of  the  "degenerate  De  Burghs";  inferior  peerages 
were  created  also ;  Desmond  and  other  lords  renewed  their 
allegiance ;  and  heralds  proclaimed,  in  the  style  of  their  craft, 
that  these  "high  and  mighty  persons  had  made  due  obeisance 
at  Greenwich."  Other  means  were  adopted,  besides,  to  make 
the  leading  men  of  the  Anglo-Irish  and  Irish  races  attached 
to  the  Crown,  and  even  loyal  subjects.  In  many  instances, 
nobles  and  chiefs  had  agreed  with  Grey,  and  even  with  previous 
deputies,  to  surrender  their  lands,  and  to  take  grants  of  them, 
to  be  held  by  the  English  feudal  tenure;  these  arrangements 
were  now  generally  carried  out;  and  if  they  ran  counter  to 
Irish  usage  and  law,  and  especially  to  the  ancient  mode  of 
Tanist  succession,  they  conferred  advantages  on  the  grantees, 
for  they  increased  the  power  over  their  dependent  vassals, 
which  had  been  their  object,  perhaps  for  centuries.  In  addi- 
tion Henry  bestowed  lands,  of  the  lately  abolished  religious 
houses,  on  the  new  nobility  he  had  created;  and  these  men, 
good  Catholics  as  they  may  have  been,  accepted  eagerly  spoils 
that  seem  to  have  been  lavished  wholesale.  This  policy, 
according  to  the  fashion  of  the  time,  received  legislative 
sanction,  with  due  solemnity.  A  Parliament  sat  in  Dublin, 
from  1540  to  1542;  it  was  attended,  for  the  first  time  in 
history,  by  prominent  chiefs  of  the  Irish  race,  as  well  as  by 
Anglo-Norman  lords,  who  had  very  seldom  attended  before ; 
and  apart  from  other  enactments,  dealing  with  reforms  in  the 
Church,  all  that  had  lately  been  done  by  the  King  was  approved. 
A  very  important  change,  in  harmony  with  Henry's  Irish 
policy,  and  no  doubt  in  compliance  with  his  will,  was,  also, 
made  in  the  administration  of  affairs  in  Ireland.  By  this  time 
order  had  been  restored  within  the  Pale,  owing  probably  to 
the  fall  of  the  House  of  Kildare;  and  the  domain  of  English 


8o  Ireland.  [Chap. 

law,  and  the  course  of  English  justice,  seem  to  have  extended 
nearly  as  far  as  the  shires  made  by  John.  Commissioners 
were  now  appointed  to  hold  Courts  in  other  and  more  distant 
parts  of  the  island ;  and  in  exact  accord  with  the  ideas  of  the 
King,  they  were  to  take  account  of  native  Irish  usages,  and  to 
deal  with  the  Irishry,  as  with  a  people  "  not  so  perfectly 
acquainted  with  the  laws,  that  they  could  at  once  live  and  be 
governed  by  them'." 

The  effects  of  this  enlightened  system  of  government  were 
remarkable,  and  deserve  attention.  Sir  Anthony  St  Leger,  one 
of  the  best  of  deputies,  carried  out  skilfully  the  King's  policy ; 
the  success  he  achieved  was  great  and  decisive.  The  long 
distracted  land  was  at  rest  for  some  years ;  signs  of  prosperity 
appeared,  not  only  within  the  Pale,  but  in  the  half  barbarous 
regions  beyond.  There  was  not  a  semblance  of  Irish  disorder, 
even  in  the  last  troubled  years  of  the  reign  of  Henry ;  an  Irish 
contingent  appeared  in  the  ranks  of  the  English  army  that 
invaded  France,  in  1543-4,  and  captured  Boulogne.  There 
were  elements  certainly  of  future  evil  in  the  changes  that  had 
been  made  in  the  Church  ;  but  these  were  not  as  yet  active ; 
there  was  as  yet  little  religious  strife  in  Ireland.  Law  had 
more  influence  than  it  had  had  ever  before ;  the  newly  ap- 
pointed Commissioners  had  done  excellent  work ;  above  all 
the  Anglo-Norman  lords  and  the  Celtic  chiefs,  through  whom 
Henry  sought  to  make  his  government  felt,  were  obedient,  and 
seemed  in  a  state  of  content.  A  state  paper  of  the  time 
describes  Ireland  in  these  remarkable  words:  "The  winning  of 
the  Earl  of  Desmond  was  the  winning  of  the  rest  of  Munster 
with  small  charges.  The  making  O'Brien  an  Earl  made  all 
that  country  obedient.  The  making  of  McWilliam  Earl  of 
Clanricarde,  made  all  that  country  during  his  time,  quiet,  and 
obedient  as  it  is  now.     The  making  of  McGilpatrick  Baron  of 

1  Leland  II.  180,   184  has  described  Henry's  Irish  policy  better  than 
any  other  modern  historian. 


III.]  Ireland  during  the  Tndor  period.  8 1 

Upper  Ossoiy  hath  made  his   country  obedient And  the 

gentleness  that  my  Lord  Deputy  doth  devise  among  the  people, 
with  wisdom  and  indifference,  doth  profit  and  make  sure  the 
former  civihty,  so  as  presidents  in  Munster,  Connaught,  and 
Ulster,  by  God's  grace,  make  all  Ireland,  without  great  force, 
to  be  obedient'." 

Not  a  few  of  the  inveterate  ills  of  Ireland  appear  in  the 
period  we  have  just  surveyed.     The  weakness  of  English  rule 
is  seen  in  the  vacillating  conduct  of  Henry  VII,  and  until  after 
the  end  of  the   Kildare   rebellion.     The    English   and    Irish 
"interests"    were   at    feud,    and    prevented    anything    like    a 
systematic  policy  up  to  the  time  of  Lord  Leonard  Grey ;  this 
was  to  be  visible  again  at  subsequent  periods.     The  enemies 
of  England,  as  in  the  days  of  Bruce,  saw  that  Ireland  was  her 
weakest  point;  this  was  to  be  recognised  in  succeeding  cen- 
turies.    The  state  of  the  Irish  Churches  had  perhaps  become 
worse ;   it  had  not  been  improved   by  Henry's   reforms ;    the 
greatest  part  of  the  country  was  still  almost  half  barbarous. 
But  civilisation  and  all  that  it  implies,  owing  in  some  degree 
to  the  measures  of  Poynings,  but  much  more  to  recent  events, 
had  successfully  laid  hold  of  the  Pale ;  we  hear  no  more  of 
coyne  and  livery,  and  feudal  rapine ;  the  settlement  had  been 
firmly  established.     The  Ditch,  and  all  that  this  meant,  were 
things  of  the  past;  the  power  of  the  Crown,  with  good  results, 
had  extended  far  beyond  the  old  borders.     Much  impression 
had  not  been  yet  made  on  the  rude  disorder  of  the  Anglo- 
Norman  land,  and  of  the  still  far-spreading  land  of  the  Celt ; 
these  were  still  under  a  bad  feudalism,  and  the  domination  of 
chiefs,  who  had  destroyed  much  that  was  best  in  primitive  Irish 
society.     Something  had  been  done,  however,   even   in    this 
respect;  the  judicious  policy  of  Henry  VIII  was  being  attended 
with  promising  results.     The  aristocracy  he  had  formed  looked 

1  Caiew  Papers  II.  246,  8  xMay,  1553. 
M.  I.  6 


82  Ireland,  [Chap.  hi. 

up  to  the  Crown ;  to  a  certain  extent  governed  in  its  behalf; 
it  was  not  impossible  that  it  might  become  akin  to  the  great 
nobles  of  England  in  the  course  of  time.  The  Monarchy,  in  a 
word,  had  spread  its  arms  far  and  wide;  its  influence  had  been 
distinctly  beneficent;  it  had  enlarged  the  limits  of  order  and 
peace.  Had  this  state  of  things  been  allowed  to  continue, 
Ireland  might  gradually  have  become  a  prosperous  land ;  her 
history  might  not  have  been  what  it  is,  one  of  the  most  woeful 
in  the  annals  of  mankind. 


CHAPTER    IV. 


IRELAND  TO   THE   END   OF  THE  REIGN   OF   ELIZABETH. 

The  Protestant  Reformation  of  Edward  VI  in  Ireland.  Its  effects  super- 
ficial. Bellingham  Deputy.  Invasion  of  Leix  and  Otfaley.  The 
reign  of  Mary  Tudor,  Catholicism  restored.  Leix  and  Offaley 
conquered  and  colonised,  and  made  the  Queen's  and  King's  Counties. 
Failure  of  the  settlement.  Elizabeth  Queen.  Her  Irish  policy  at 
first  like  that  of  Henry  VIII.  The  Parliament  of  1560.  The 
Anglican  Reformation  in  Ireland.  Its  efiects  and  prospective  dangers. 
Beginning  of  troubles.  Shane  O'Neill.  He  is  elected  chief  of  his 
tribe.  He  defeats  Sussex.  He  repairs  to  the  Court  of  Elizabeth,  and 
returns  to  Ireland.  Treacherous  policy  pursued  towards  him.  He 
assumes  the  title  of  the  O'Neill  and  tries  to  subjugate  Ulster.  He  is 
attacked  by  Sir  Henry  Sidney,  and  a  league  of  Irish  chiefs.  His 
death  and  character.  The  Parliament  of  1567-9.  Attainder  of  Shane 
O'Neill.  Act  to  make  all  Ireland  shireland.  Connaught  divided 
into  six  counties.  Disputes  between  the  English  and  Irish  interests. 
Opposition  to  interference  with  Poynings'  Law.  "Killings"  of  the 
Irishry  in  Leix  and  Offaley,  and  in  Wicklow.  Projects  of  colonisation 
in  Ulster.  Smith  and  Lord  Essex.  Sir  Peter  Carew.  The  rebellion 
of  James  Fitzmaurice  of  Desmond.  Its  causes.  Attempt  to  stir  up  a 
Holy  War  in  Ireland.  The  Desmond  rebellion  and  how  it  began. 
Gregory  XIII  and  Philip  of  Spain.  Frightful  guerilla  war  in 
Munster.  The  rising  of  Lord  Baltinglass.  Defeat  of  Lord  Grey  in 
Wicklow.  Massacre  of  Spaniards  and  Italians  at  the  fort  near 
Smerwick.  End  of  the  Desmond  rebellion.  Death  of  the  Earl. 
Confiscation  of  his  possessions.     The  attempt  to  colonise  them  of  little 

6—2 


1 


84  Ireland.  [Chap. 

effect.  Sir  John  Perrott  Deputy.  His  character  and  beneficent 
government.  Parliament  of  1585-6.  The  settlement  of  Connaught. 
Sir  William  Fitzwilliam  Deputy.  His  evil  conduct.  Hugh  O'Neill, 
Earl  of  Tyrone.  Causes  that  led  to  his  rebellion.  He  becomes  the 
O'Neill.  His  ability  as  a  soldier.  Battle  of  the  Yellow  Ford. 
Defeat  of  the  English.  O'Neill  tries  to  form  a  great  Irish  league. 
He  outwits  Essex.  Mounljoy  Deputy.  He  overruns  Ulster.  Skilful 
resistance  of  O'Neill.  Gradual  advance  of  Mountjoy.  Landing  of  a 
Spanish  force  at  Kinsale.  Defeat  of  O'Neill.  He  retains  his  lands 
and  honours.     State  of  Ireland  at  the  death  of  Elizabeth.    Reflections. 

There  were  few  signs  in  Ireland  of  the  many  troubles 
which  convulsed  England  after  the  death  of  Henry  VIII. 
There  was  no  conflict  between  an  old  nobility  and  new  men 
gorged  with  the  spoil  of  Religious  Houses ;  no  strife  of 
factions,  like  that  which  raged  around  the  throne  of  a  boyish 
king;  no  risings  of  injured  peasants  repressed,  in  whole 
counties,  by  a  foreign  soldiery ;  no  fierce  struggle  between 
contending  faiths,  as  Protestantism,  by  degrees,  made  its 
influence  felt.  But  Somerset  and  Northumberland,  backed  by 
Edward  VI,  had  tried  to  put  Catholicism  down  in  England ; 
Catholic  ritual  and  doctrine  were  abolished;  the  service 
of  the  Mass  was  replaced  by  a  new  Liturgy;  the  Breviary 
was  turned  into  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer,  published 
in  the  vulgar  tongue,  and  open  to  all  readers ;  the  adminis- 
tration of  the  Eucharist  was  completely  changed;  and — most 
significant,  perhaps,  of  all  to  the  mass  of  the  people — the 
churches  were  stripped  of  their  costly  ornaments.  As  in  the 
preceding  reign,  it  was  deemed  in  the  nature  of  things  that 
this  revolution  should  extend  to  Ireland,  a  mere  dependency 
of  the  Crown  of  the  Tudors.  It  was  in  vain  that  a  wise  man 
at  the  Castle  declared  that  *'  things  should  be  letten  alone,  as 
king  Henry  had  ordered,  otherwise  burly  burlys  would 
happen";  the  new  reUgious  system  was  to  be  transferred  to 
Ireland.  Sir  Anthony  St  Leger,  it  deserves  notice— the 
ungracious  duty  had  been  devolved  on  him— did  not  attempt 


IV.]      Ireland  to  the  end  of  the  reign  of  ElizabetJi.       85 

to  assemble  a  Parliament,  to  carry  out  the  will  of  the  English 
Council  of  State ;  he  simply  issued  a  proclamation  announcing 
the  change.  The  Liturgy  was  read  in  English,  in  a  few 
churches  of  the  Pale  \  a  certain  number  of  Prelates  concurred ; 
one  Bishop  at  least,  a  Protestant  zealot,  became  a  missionary 
of  the  reformed  doctrines,  renounced  the  solemn  rite  of  the 
altar,  and  condemned  his  clergy  as  superstitious  Papists ;  and, 
as  had  happened  in  England,  relics,  pictures,  and  images, — 
symbols  of  a  faith  that  had  been  held  for  centuries — were 
removed,  apparently,  from  many  places  of  worship.  Their 
removal  aroused  the  passionate  wrath  of  the  congregations  in 
more  than  one  instance ;  it  was  occasionally  accompanied  by 
wrong  and  outrage.  Attempts  were  made  to  retain  the 
sacred  emblems,  when  several  churches  were  sacked  and 
pillaged  by  English  troops. 

These  changes,  however,  had  little  effect  throughout  the 
mass  of  the  Irish  community.  There  were  disturbances,  in- 
deed, in  the  Catholic  Pale;  Dowdal,  the  successor  of  Cromer 
in  the  see  of  Armagh,  and  other  bishops  made  angry  protests ; 
the  brethren  of  suppressed  monasteries  stirred  feebly,  in 
different  parts  of  the  country,  and  began  to  form  elements  of 
troubles  yet  to  come.  But  the  Reformation  had  scarcely 
reached  the  land  of  the  Irishry ;  apart  from  a  few  wild  mob 
gatherings,  the  body  of  the  people  remained  quiescent;  the 
Anglo-Norman  lords  and  the  Celtic  chiefs,  contented  with 
Henry's  late  policy,  made  no  call  on  their  vassals  and 
clansmen.  In  truth,  Ireland  was  too  inert,  too  sunk  in 
ignorance,  too  backward,  too  distant  from  the  great  movement 
of  the  age,  to  be  violently  agitated  by  the  new  doctrines,  or  by 
the  innovations  made  by  Somerset's  Council.  In  other  lands 
the  revolution  in  faith  and  thought  had  shaken  society  to  its 
innermost  depths;  the  seamless  garment  had  been  rent 
asunder,  and  Christendom  was  tearing  the  shreds  into  pieces. 
There  were  wars  and   rumours  of  wars  in   five-sixths  of  the 


S6  Ireland.  [Chap. 

Continent,  a  League  of  Smalkalde,  a  Battle  of  Miihlberg; 
Luther  had  aroused  Germany,  Calvin  awakened  France,  Rome 
summoned,  in  self-defence,  the  Council  of  Trent ;  the  armed 
advance  of  Protestantism  was  being  confronted  by  the  Catholic 
revival,  and  its  quickly  growing  forces.  In  Ireland,  ultimately 
doomed  to  a  hideous  strife  of  creeds,  the  mighty  religious 
movement  of  the  sixteenth  century  as  yet  exhibited  itself 
mainly  in  insignificant  wranglings  and  petty  broils. 

The  reign  of  Edward  VI  in  Ireland,  however,  was  disturbed 
owing  to  a  change  in  secular  policy.  The  Irish  tribes  of 
O' Moore  and  O'Connor  held  the  great  region  of  Leix  and 
Offaley,  extending  to  the  borders  of  the  Pale,  and  stretching 
thence,  westwards,  to  the  course  of  the  Shannon.  From  this 
region,  bounded  on  one  side  by  broad  hill  ranges  and  on  the 
other  by  the  lakes  of  Westmeath,  and  fronted  by  woods,  thickets, 
and  the  morass  of  Allen,  armed  clans  had  often  invaded  the 
seats  of  the  Englishry,  and  had  harried  them  up  to  the  walls  of 
Dublin.  The  chiefs  had  exacted  the  Black  Rent  for  a  long  series 
of  years;  and  Brian  O'Connor,  as  we  have  seen,  was  not  only 
a  near  kinsman  of  the  House  of  Kildare,  but  had  taken  part  in 
the  late  risings.  He  had,  however,  submitted,  like  the  other 
lords  and  chiefs,  and  had  perhaps  been  promised  a  peerage  by 
Henry ;  and  O'Moore  certainly  seems  to  have  become  com- 
pletely reconciled  to  the  king's  policy.  But  Leix  and  Offaley 
formed  a  tempting  spoil;  this  hostile  Celtic  land  was  a  menace 
to  the  Pale ;  and  the  English  Council  resolved  to  abandon  the 
system  of  Irish  government,  which  had  had  such  good  results, 
and  to  extend  its  power,  by  arms,  into  this  coveted  tract.  Sir 
Edward  Bellingham,  an  able  soldier,  became  Deputy  in  St 
Leger's  stead ;  and  litde  difficulty  was  found  in  charging  the 
two  chiefs  with  conspiring  with  France,  then  at  war  with 
England,  and  with  meditating  renewed  "treasons."  The 
English  soldiery  were  soon  hewing  a  path  through  the 
wilderness,  which,  at  that  time,  spread  from  the  banks  of  the 


IV.]      Ireland  to  the  end  of  the  reign  of  Elizabeth.      Sy 

Barrow  to  the  verge  of  Connaiight ;  Bellingham,  carefully 
selecting  points  of  vantage,  carried  his  arms  as  far  as 
Athlone,  on  the  Shannon;  and  forts  were  built  in  the  midst 
of  Leix  and  Offaley.  O'Moore  and  O'Connor,  it  is  said, 
were  invited  to  England,  and  then  treacherously  thrown  into 
prison. 

"The  rough  handling  of  the  Deputy  makes  all  men 
despair,"  was  the  bitter  exclamation  of  the  great  Earl  of 
Desmond,  loyal  as  yet  to  the  faith  he  had  pledged  to  the 
Crown ;  the  invasion  of  Leix  and  Offaley  certainly  marked 
a  new  era  in  Irish  history,  the  beginning  of  many  disasters 
and  woes.  The  accession,  however,  of  Mary  Tudor  to  the 
throne,  for  a  moment  arrested  the  march  of  conquest; 
Bellingham  died,  and  was  replaced  by  St  Leger;  the  new 
Deputy  was  again  directed  to  effect  another  great  religious 
change.  The  transformation  was  what  it  had  been  twice  before ; 
Catholicism  was  set  up,  in  Ireland,  exactly  as  it  was  set  up  in 
England ;  the  Mass  was  restored,  and  the  old  ritual ;  the 
churches  were  decked  out  with  the  old  ornaments,  so  far  as 
these  had  been  saved  from  heretics ;  the  people  were  absolved 
from  the  guilt  of  schism ;  and  the  supremacy  of  Rome  in 
spiritual  affairs  was  unanimously  voted  by  a  complaisant 
Parliament,  amidst  public  and  solemn  thanksgivings.  In 
Ireland,  however,  as  in  England,  the  lands  of  the  Religious 
Houses  were  not  given  back;  the  Crown,  too,  retained 
considerable  ecclesiastical  power.  It  was  with  Catholicism, 
also,  as  it  had  been  with  Protestantism  ;  the  revolution  in  faith 
was  not  followed  by  any  striking  or  memorable  results.  The 
zealous  Protestant  Bishop,  indeed,  disappeared ;  one  or  two  of 
his  brethren,  perhaps,  were  deprived  of  their  sees ;  but  there 
was  no  violent  religious  conflict,  no  great  stirring  or  shock 
of  warring  opinions.  Ireland  had  still  no  martyrs  of  either 
of  the  contending  faiths  ;  the  community  remained  undisturbed 
and  passive.     While  persecution  was  raging  in  England,  while 


88  Ireland.  [Chap. 

Huguenots  were  sent  to  the  stake  in  France,  while  the 
marriage  of  Philip  and  Mary  seemed  to  portend  the  speedy 
triumph  of  Rome,  while  Paul  IV  was  preaching  a  Crusade, 
throughout  Europe,  on  behalf  of  the  Church,  the  shock  of  the 
great  struggle  hardly  moved  Ireland. 

The  restoration  of  the  old  faith  and  ritual  scarcely  retarded 
the  advance  of  the  power  of  the  Englishry.  The  young  Earl 
of  Kildare  had  been  allowed  to  visit  England;  through  the 
influence  of  Reginald  Pole  he  regained  his  lands  and  his 
honours.  It  was  otherwise  with  the  chiefs  O'Moore  and 
O'Connor;  their  territories  had  been  marked  down  by  the 
spoiler.  O'Moore  had  died  in  his  foreign  prison ;  Brian 
O'Connor  was  sent  back  to  his  tribe ;  for  his  daughter, 
the  Irish  annals  record,  "  had  crossed  the  sea  to  fall  at  the  feet 
of  the  Queen";  and  "there  were  rejoicings  in  Leath  Mogha\ 
for  it  was  thought,  by  all,  that  the  O'Connors'  Fally  would  never 
behold  Erin  again."  But  Thomas  Radcliff,  Lord  Sussex,  had 
been  made  Lord  Lieutenant;  the  Irish  Council  were  men 
of  the  "English  interest";  and  Surrey's  schemes  of  conquest 
and  colonisation  were  vigorously  taken  up.  On  pretexts  of 
"rebellion,"  either  flimsy  or  untrue'^,  an  English  force  was 
marched  into  Leix  and  Offaley ;  the  lands  of  the  chiefs  and 
their  tribes  were  declared  forfeited;  and  Maryborough  and 
Philipstown,  the  chief  towns  of  the  Queen's  and  King's  counties, 
— two  new  shires  created  by  these  means — still  commemorate 
one  of  the  worst  acts  of  this  reign.  Scores  of  colonists  were 
poured  into  the  conquered  region ;  but,  like  other  settle- 
ments, before  and  afterwards,  this  settlement  proved  a 
complete  failure.  The  colonists  were  far  too  few  in  number ; 
no  arrangements  were  made  to  allot  a  reasonable  share  of 
the  lands    that    had    been    seized    to   the    despoiled    Irishry; 

^  Leinster. 

^  See  Leland,  ii.  221  and  Carew  State  Papers,  i.  262,  February  25, 

1557- 


IV.]      Ireland  to  the  end  of  the  reign  of  Elizabeth.      89 

and  the  ultimate  result  was  only  to  form  a  weak  class 
of  new  possessors  of  the  soil,  hemmed  in  by  the  descendants 
of  the  injured  chiefs,  and  of  their  devoted  septs  and  clans, 
brooding  on  hopes  of  vengeance,  and  even  yet  to  prove  by  no 
means  contemptible  foes. 

The  first  years  of  Elizabeth's  reign  were  peaceful  in 
England  and  Ireland  alike,  a  striking  contrast  with  those  she 
lived  to  witness.  Her  throne,  indeed,  seemed  for  a  time 
in  peril,  owing  to  the  league  between  France  and  Scotland, 
and  to  Catholic  intrigues  at  home  and  abroad;  but  Philip 
steadily  took  her  side;  her  authority  was  established  after  a 
few  months.  The  policy  of  the  queen  was  judicious  and 
cautious ;  she  put  an  end  to  a  disastrous  war  with  France ;  she 
withdrew  from  continental  affairs ;  she  thought  of  England, 
and  its  interests,  as  her  main  object.  In  Ireland  something  of 
the  same  kind  was  seen  ;  Elizabeth  retained  the  men  in  office ; 
but  she  sought  to  return  to  the  mode  of  government  of  which 
Henry  VIII  had  set  an  example.  She  would  not  listen  to  the 
complaints  of  Sussex  against  Anglo-Norman  lords  and  chiefs 
of  the  Irishry ;  she  rejected  his  schemes  of  colonisation  and 
conquest.  She,  indeed,  sanctioned  what  had  been  done  in 
Leix  and  Offaley  ;  and  she  turned  an  eye  towards  Ulster, 
where  the  power  of  England  was  weaker  than  in  other  parts  of 
the  island,  and  where  whole  districts  were  ravaged  by  continual 
feuds  between  the  O'Neills  and  other  chiefs  and  the  Scottish 
settlers.  But  it  is  remarkable  that  she  wished  to  give  back  the 
O'Moores  and  O'Connors  parts  of  their  lands  ;  even  as  regards 
Ulster,  her  chief  thought  was  peace.  This  policy,  doubtless, 
was  in  part  due  to  the  charges  of  recent  Irish  wars  and 
conquests — she  was  thrifty  in  this  as  in  all  matters — but 
she  seems  at  first  to  have  had  a  real  wish  to  try  to  rule 
Ireland,  as  her  father  had  tried,  through  an  aristocracy  of 
Norman  and  Irish  blood,  formed  by  the  Crown. 

In  England,   meanwhile,  another  great  change  in  ecclesi- 


90  •  Ireland.  [Chap. 

astical  and  religious  affairs  had  been  made.  Elizabeth  had 
wished  to  reestablish  her  father's  system,  that  is,  to  secure  the 
supremacy  of  the  Crown  in  the  Church,  to  do  away  with  the 
jurisdiction  of  Rome,  and  yet  to  maintain,  for  the  most  part, 
the  ancient  fiiith ;  but  the  growing  Protestantism  of  the  nation 
proved  too  strong  for  her.  The  English  Church  was  finally 
detached  from  the  Holy  See ;  its  polity  and  doctrines  were  so 
arranged  as  to  combine  much  of  the  work  of  Henry  VHI  with 
some  of  the  reforms  of  Edward  VI.  As  the  pendulum  had 
swung  round  in  England,  it  was  taken  for  granted  that  it 
was  to  swing  round  in  Ireland ;  the  new  system  was  to  be 
adopted  in  the  lesser  island.  At  a  Parliament  assembled  in 
Dublin  in  1560,  the  Catholicism  which  Mary  Tudor  had 
restored  was  declared  unlawful,  and  a  thing  of  the  past,  and 
Elizabethan  Anglicanism  was  set  in  its  stead.  The  supremacy 
of  the  Crown,  in  the  Church,  in  Ireland,  was  asserted,  as  in  the 
time  of  Henry  VIII,  if  not  in  such  offensive  language;  the 
jurisdiction  of  the  Pope  was  no  longer  to  exist ;  and  the  Mass 
and  the  old  ritual  were  condemned  by  law,  with  the  ornaments 
and  other  symbols  of  the  old  faith.  The  Protestantism  of  the 
Council  of  Somerset  was  to  be  accepted,  also,  as  the  national 
faith ;  the  new  Liturgy,  the  new  Prayer  Book,  the  new 
sacramental  system,  were  introduced  once  more,  with  modifica- 
tions of  no  great  importance ;  and  the  services  of  the  Church 
were  to  be  performed  in  the  English  tongue,  assumed  to  be 
the  "  vulgar  "  tongue  by  a  monstrous  fiction.  The  provisions  for 
the  extension  of  "  English  schools  "  were  reenacted  along  with 
those  that  made  "  Englishmen  "  the  possessors  of  the  richest  and 
best  benefices ;  and  a  religious  test  was  imposed,  perhaps  for  tlie 
first  time.  The  clergy  were  made  to  take  an  oath  of  supremacy; 
this  was  an  obligation  too  on  laymen  in  the  service  of  the  state, 
and  even  in  the  profession  of  the  law ;  and  attendance  at  the 
churches  where  the  new  faith  was  taught  was  enjoined, 
nominally  at  least,  under  diff'erent  kinds  of  penalties. 


IV.]      Ireland  to  the  end  of  tJie  reign  of  ElizabetJi.      91 

The  immediate  effects  of  these  fresh  changes  were,  however, 
as  before,  not  very  great  in  Ireland.  The  Catholic  Pale, 
indeed,  seems  to  have  been  aroused ;  the  Parliament  was,  for 
this  reason,  suddenly  dissolved ;  and  two  of  the  Irish  Prelates, 
at  least,  resigned  their  sees  and  refused  to  conform  to  what 
they  considered  unlawful  heresy.  But,  as  had  happened 
already,  and  from  the  same  causes,  the  revolution  in  the 
Church  was  not  acutely  or  generally  felt ;  it  did  not  provoke 
any  kind  of  rising ;  it  probably  did  not  extend  far  beyond  the 
Pale ;  and  the  Irish  community  was  not  in  the  state  in  which 
it  would  move  deeply  the  hearts  of  men.  Yet  it  led  to  more 
discontent  than  had  been  the  case  before ;  and  signs  were  not 
wanting  that  it  might  become  a  source,  in  the  future,  of  many 
evils.  The  power  of  the  Englishry  was  advancing  rapidly,  and 
was  associated  with  the  rule  of  the  sword,  and  conquest ;  and 
the  new  Anglican  system  was  that  of  the  foreign  invaders,  and 
of  the  always  detested  Church  of  the  Pale.  The  Irishry,  on  the 
other  hand,  were  being  gradually  subdued ;  the  old  Celtic 
Church  was  turning  towards  Rome ;  its  clergy^  driven  from 
their  altars,  in  parts  of  the  country,  were  becoming  bitterly 
hostile  to  every  English  influence;  and  their  authority  was 
increasing,  as  that  of  the  chiefs  diminished.  In  circumstances 
such  as  these,  should  a  strange  religion,  with  its  observances 
embodied  in  a  strange  tongue,  follow  the  march  of  conquest, 
and  be  imposed  on  a  subjugated  and  reluctant  people,  es- 
pecially in  a  struggle  of  contending  faiths,  it  is  not  difficult 
to  foresee  the  results. 

The  comparative  tranquillity  of  Ireland  Avas  now  disturbed 
by  a  difficult  and  protracted  contest,  which  placed  strikingly 
on  the  stage  of  events  one  of  the  most  remarkable  figures  in 
Irish  history.  Conn  O'Neill,  we  have  seen,  had  been  ennobled 
by  Henry  VIII ;  he  had  been  made  Earl  of  Tyrone,  with 
remainder  to  a  son,  of  the  name  of  Matthew,  who  had  received 
the  title  of  Baron  of  Dungannon,   as  his  lawful  heir.      The 


92  Ireland.  [Chap. 

Earl,  however,  bad  another  son,  Shane,  a  conspicuous  specimen 
of  the  genius  of  the  Celt ;  and  Shane  had  made  a  great  name 
for  himself,  in  raids  against  the  Scots  of  the  Ulster  seaboard, 
and  in  feuds  with  the  tribe  of  the  O'Donnells  of  the  North,  the 
hereditary  foes  of  the  once  royal  O'Neills.     He  was  a  bitter 
enemy,  too,  of  his  brother  Matthew,  an  ally,  it  appears,  of  the 
Englishry  of  the  Pale ;  in  one  of  many  skirmishes  Matthew  was 
slain  (1558);  and,  as  we  have  said,  these  troubles  had  engaged  the 
attention  of  the  Queen  and  of  her  Irish  Government.     On  the 
death  of  the  Earl  (1559),  Shane  was  solemnly  chosen  by  his 
clansmen  chief  of  the  great  race  of  the  O'Neills ;   the  dignity 
recalling  the  ancient  glories  of  the  monarchs  of  the  Hy-Niall  line, 
and  giving  a  suzerainty  over  all  the  clans  of  Ulster.     This  was 
a  scornful  rejection  of  the  English  earldom,  and  of  the  arrange- 
ment effected  by  Henry  VIH ;   it  was  practically  a  defiance 
of  English  power ;  and,  in  the  eyes  of  the  men  at  the  Castle, 
it  was   an    act    of   rebellion,  as   marked  and  heinous  as  the 
expulsion  of  an  English  Resident,  by  a  vassal  Prince  in  India, 
would  appear  at   Calcutta    at  the  present    day.      Sir    Henry 
Sidney,  Deputy,  for  the  time,  for   Sussex,  remonstrated  with 
the    lately   elected   chief;    but    Shane,    as   the    state    papers 
acknowledge,  had,  by  many  degrees,  the  best  of  the  argument. 
His  brother  Matthew  was  probably  not  legitimate ;    and  his 
tribe   had   never  renounced   their  right    to    proclaim  a   chief 
according  to  old  Celtic  usage. 

A  series  of  negotiations  followed  :  Elizabeth,  clinging  to  her 
father's  policy,  convinced,  perhaps,  that  her  Irish  Council  were  in 
the  wrong,  attempted  to  patch  matters  up  with  Shane,  who,  in 
turn,  adroitly  maintained  his  position.  The  Queen,  however, 
yielding  at  last  to  Sussex,  the  unscrupulous  advocate  of  extreme 
measures,  consented  (1560)  to  make  war  on  "the  Irish  rebel"; 
Shane  was  attacked  by  Sussex  advancing  from  the  Pale,  and  by 
the  Scots,  and  the  O'Donnells  lying  on  his  rear.  But  the  chief 
had  the  inspiration  of  a  true  soldier ;    he  turned  against  the 


IV.]      Ireland  to  the  end  of  the  reign  of  Elizabeth.      93 

foes  nearest  at  hand,  contrived  to  separate  the  O'Donnells 
from  the  Scots,  and  then  completely  defeated  Sussex,  ap- 
parently an  incapable  man  in  the  field.  The  infuriated  Lord 
Lieutenant  had  recourse  to  the  deceptions  and  crimes,  which 
have  left  a  deep  stain  on  English  policy  in  its  dealings  with 
Shane;  he  did  not  hesitate  to  plot  his  enemy's  murder.  Shane, 
however,  who  seems  to  have  thought  the  Queen  his  friend, 
virtually  offered  to  make  her  arbiter  of  his  cause ;  he  repaired 
(1562),  in  Celtic  state,  to  the  Court  of  Elizabeth,  as  an  Eastern 
Prince  does  to  that  of  Victoria.  His  Irish  accent,  his  strange 
attire,  the  aspect  of  his  rude  noblesse  and  kerne,  provoked  mer- 
riment and  contempt  at  first ;  but  the  chief  was  more  than  a 
match  for  the  scoffers.  Elizabeth,  and  even  Cecil,  thought  the 
occasion  a  fitting  one  to  lay  a  trap  for  Shane ;  he  was  to  be 
detained  in  England,  perhaps  not  to  depart  with  his  life.  But 
Shane,  with  the  peculiar  skill  of  the  Celt,  flattered  the  Virgin 
Tudor  to  the  top  of  her  bent,  and  seems  to  have  really 
changed  her  purpose ;  the  death  of  the  son  of  the  late  Baron 
Matthew  had  given  a  new  complexion  to  affairs;  and  Shane 
was  permitted  to  return  to  Ireland.  He  had  agreed  to  an 
arrangement,  which  would  have  made  him  a  mere  vassal  of  the 
English  Government,  and  have  combined  the  Irishry  of  the 
North  against  him.  He  went  back  to  his  country  with  a 
fixed  resolve  to  disregard  a  compact  imposed  by  force. 

When  his  foot  was  once  more  on  his  native  heath,  the  chief 
boldly  threw  off  the  mask.  He  had  kept  his  eyes  and  ears 
open  at  the  Court  of  the  Queen;  he  had  learned  that  Mary 
Stuart  was  already  at  the  head  of  a  conspiracy  to  win  the  throne 
of  England,  supported  by  English  Catholic  nobles,  and  by  her 
kinsmen  of  the  House  of  Guise ;  he  had  been  in  correspondence 
with  the  ambassador  of  Spain ;  he  knew  that  the  forces  of  Sussex 
had  been  lately  reduced.  He  attacked  (1563)  the  O'Donnells 
and  other  chiefs,  his  foes ;  swept  Ulster  with  his  kerne,  from 
Lough  Neagh  to  Lough  Foyle;  fell  on  an  English  garrison  at 


94  Irelajid.  [Chap. 

Armagh ;  and  even  threatened  a  descent  on  the  Pale.  The 
Lord  Lieutenant  marched  against  him  in  vain ;  the  Enghsh 
troops  were  unpaid  and  mutinous;  Shane's  Geraldine  cousin, 
the  Earl  of  Kildare,  held  back  from  an  enterprise  he  disliked; 
and  Sussex  retreated,  ashamed  and  discomfited.  Treachery 
was  attempted  again  when  force  had  failed;  a  device  was  tried 
to  lure  the  Irish  chief  to  Dublin;  Sussex  wrote  that  his  sister 
would  perhaps  give  him  her  hand;  before  long  poison  was  laid 
for  him,  a  crime  tacitly  approved  by  the  Irish  Government. 
Shane,  however,  saw  through,  or  baffled  these  wicked  expedi- 
ents; parleys  and  negotiations  w^ere  again  set  on  foot;  and 
Elizabeth,  at  last,  had  recourse  to  the  policy,  which,  in  the  case 
of  the  great  Earl  of  Kildare,  had  been  adopted  by  Henry  VII. 
An  amnesty  for  the  past  was  promised;  and  Shane,  with 
reservations  little  more  than  nominal,  was  allowed  to  retain  his 
title  as  chief  of  the  O'Neills,  involving  the  suzerainty  of  Ulster 
at  least,  and  perhaps  the  ancient  claims  of  the  Ily-Niall 
monarchs  (Nov.  1563).  The  dangers,  which  had  begun  to 
surround  her  at  home  and  abroad,  doubtless,  forced  the 
Queen  to  make  this  immense  concession. 

The  conduct  of  Shane,  up  to  this  time,  had  shown  intelli- 
gence and  powers  of  a  very  high  order.  The  chief,  however,  had 
ere  long  given  proof  of  the  fancifulness,  and  the  inability  of 
Celtic  nature  to  see  things  as  they  really  are,  vividly  portrayed 
in  Shakspeare's  Owen  Glendower.  Shane  openly  defied  the 
power  of  England;  erected  a  fortress  near  the  verge  of  the  Pale, 
significantly  called  "the  Englishman's  hate";  held  up  the 
Council  at  the  Castle  to  scorn  and  ridicule;  laughed  at  English 
titles  conferred  by  Elizabeth;  and  ravaged  more  than  one 
outlying  English  settlement.  At  the  same  time  (1565)  he  made 
a  determined  effort  to  subjugate  Ulster,  and  even  a  part 
of  Connaught — ahnost  an  act  of  madness  as  affairs  stood; 
he  tried  to  crush  the  O'Donnells,  and  all  the  chiefs  of  the  North; 
his  rude  forces  were  seen  in  the  lands  of  the  De  Burghs;  he 


IV.]      Ireland  to  the  end  of  the  reign  of  Elizabeth.      95 

lorded  it  over  the  Irishry  from  the  Bann  to  the  Shannon.  Yet, 
to  do  him  justice,  he  ruled  his  own  tribe  with  wisdom  and  talents 
admired  even  by  his  enemies;  he  was  not  only,  they  admitted, 
the  "one  strong  man  in  Ireland,"  but  a  "Prince"  who  knew 
how  to  make  himself  "loved  and  obeyed."  At  last  Shane  was 
heard  to  boast  that  "Ulster  was  his  own";  that  "he  was  the 
O'Neill  and  would  hold  what  he  had  won";  and  the  dream 
seems  to  have  crossed  his  mind  that  he  would  yet  revive  the 
Hy-Niall  kingship,  the  sovereign  of  an  Ireland  freed  from  the 
stranger.  A  conflict  had  become  inevitable  with  the  power  he 
had  provoked;  but  Sidney  had  been  set  in  the  place  of  Sussex; 
he  was  an  adversary  of  a  very  different  quality.  The  Deputy 
assembled  a  considerable  force;  sent  a  detachment  to  fall  on 
Shane's  rear  from  Derry;  and  easily  persuaded  the  chiefs  of 
the  North  and  the  West  to  form  a  league  against  their  dreaded 
tyrant.  Shane,  however,  Avas  not  unequal  to  himself;  he  sent 
messengers  to  the  rulers  of  France,  and  to  Scottish  nobles 
hostile  to  England;  he  made  an  appeal  to  his  Geraldine 
kinsmen;  he  mustered  the  warriors  of  his  devoted  tribe;  and 
nerved  himself  for  a  desperate  effort.  But  no  friendly  succours 
came  from  abroad;  the  Desmonds  of  Munster  were  afraid  to 
stir;  Sidney  advanced  steadily,  like  Bellingham  taking  posses- 
sion of  important  points  of  vantage;  and  the  territories  of  the 
chief  were  savagely  harried.  Meanwhile  the  English  had 
marched  from  Derry;  and  the  Irish  auxiliaries  gathered  in  from 
all  parts  of  Ulster.  Shane  and  his  faithful  clansmen  stood 
bravely  at  bay;  but  he  was  struck  down  in  a  decisive  battle,  in 
which  the  O'Donnells  and  other  Celtic  chiefs  joined  the 
Englishry  against  the  son  of  their  ancient  kings,  as  Indian 
Princes  fought  against  Hyder  and  Tippoo.  The  chief  took 
refuge  in  the  camp  of  the  Scots  of  Ulster;  he  was  ignominiously 
slain  in  a  drunken  brawl;  the  deed  was  perhaps  instigated  by 
one  of  Sidney's  officers  (1567). 

Shane  O'Neill  stands  forth,  in  striking  relief,  through  the 


9^  Ireland,  [Chap. 

dismal  tragedy  of  Irish  history.     We  know  nothing  of  him 
save  from  his  enemies;  these,  indeed,  have  acknowledged  his 
great  parts;    but  they  have  covered  him  with  the  most  foul 
obloquy.     An  impartial  judgment  on  the  singular  career  of  this 
remarkable  personage  will  be  very  different.     He  was  a  man  of 
lust,  but  his  was  the  century  of  Henry  VHI,  and  of  Henry  of 
Navarre;  he  was  a  man  of  blood,  but  more  free  from  its  stain 
than  scores  of  the  foremost  men  of  his  age;  if  he  broke  faith, 
his  was  not  the  infamous  guile  of  soldiers  and  statesmen  who 
planned  his  murder.    He  possessed,  in  the  very  highest  degree, 
the  excellences  and  defects  of  the  genuine  Celt;  his  veins  were 
full  of  Geraldine  blood,  but  he  was  a  great  Irishman  in  his 
essential  character.     He  certainly  was  a  distinguished  leader  in 
war;  he  ably  governed  clansmen  who  died  for  him;   he  was 
adroit  and  skilful  in  trying  crises;   he  outwitted  and  baffled 
Elizabethan  councils;  like  others  of  his  line  he  wished  to  unite 
the  Irishry  against  the  foreign  invader.     But  he  was  a  Celt, 
who   lived   in    the   past,    and   whose    imagination    could   not 
confront  realities;  it  was  insanity  to  think  of  the  days  of  his 
fathers;  to  challenge  England  to  deadly  strife;  above  all  to  try 
to  destroy  the  very  men,  in  whom  he  might,  otherwise,  have 
found  auxiliaries.     Yet  the  most  remarkable  feature   in   this 
passage  of  history  is  the  attitude  and  conduct  of  nearly  all  the 
chiefs  of  Ulster.     They  had  been  cruelly  wronged  by  Shane; 
some  had  been  for  years  his  inveterate  foes.     But  they  must 
have  perceived  the  advance  of  the  English  conquerors:  they 
might  have  foreseen  that  the  ruin  of  Shane  would  in  the  long 
run  probably  be  followed  by  their  own.    Yet  they  joined  Sidney 
to  destroy  a  great  man  of  their  race ;  for  the  idea  of  nationality 
did  not  exist  in  them;  they  could  not  look  beyond  their  septs 
and  their  clans;  they  were  still  slaves  of  mere  tribal  discord. 

The  attainder  of  Shane  O'Neill  quickly  followed  his  defeat; 
the  "rebel's  head,  bodied  with  a  stake,  stood  on  the  top  of 
Her   Majesty's  Casde."     Tirlogh   Lenagh,   a  kinsman  of  the 


IV.]      Ireland  to  the  end  of  the  reign  of  ElizabctJi.      97 

defeated  chief,  was  placed  in  possession  of  parts  of  his  lands, 
as  Mir  Jaffir  succeeded  to  Surajah  Dowlah;  he  was  to  be  a 
mere  puppet  of  the  Irish  Government.  A  Parliament  was 
convened  in  1567 — 8;  some  of  its  enactments  were  significant 
in  the  extreme  of  the  growing  expansion  of  English  power  in 
Ireland.  The  whole  country  was  to  be  made  shire-land ; 
Connaught  was  divided  into  six  counties,  including  Clare  and 
part  of  Munster ;  the  assumption  of  the  title  or  the  authority 
of  a  chief,  in  any  tract  made  shire-land,  was  declared  criminal. 
A  considerable  administrative  change,  meanwhile,  had  taken 
place  in  the  remoter  parts  of  the  island.  Commissioners,  we 
have  said,  had  been  chosen  by  Henry  VIII  to  do  justice  in 
regions  beyond  the  Pale,  in  some  measure  in  accordance  with 
Irish  usage ;  and  the  experiment  had  had  considerable  success. 
This  system  was  not  formally  altered;  but,  as  the  march  of 
conquest  progressed,  the  Commissioners  were  invested  with 
military  power,  were  always  attended  by  a  large  armed  force, 
and  became  known  by  the  name  of  Presidents.  There  were 
now  two,  one  for  Munster,  and  one  for  Connaught ;  they  went 
circuit  and  administered  justice;  but  their  chief  mission  was 
to  keep  the  Irishry  down.  In  Roman  phrase,  they  had  become 
Proconsuls,  rather  than  Praetors ;  they  were  men  of  the  sword, 
much  more  than  of  law.  It  deserves  notice  that  this  Parlia- 
ment was  less  submissive  than  its  predecessors  had  been, 
perhaps  because  it  was  stronger  and  more  numerous. 
Sidney  tried  to  suspend  the  celebrated  Law  of  Poynings, 
which  gave  the  initiative  in  legislation  to  the  Crown,  and  to 
impose  measures  of  his  own  on  the  Parliament ;  but  a  steady 
resistance  ended  in  a  compromise ;  and  there  was  another 
conflict  between  "  the  English  interest,"  long  supreme,  and  the 
Anglo-Irish  of  the  Pale. 

Parts  of  Ireland  ere  long  became  scenes  of  barbarities  to 
be  deplored  by  History.  The  military  force  in  Dubhn  was 
small ;    the    Englishry   were   on   the   path    of  conquest,   with 

M.  I.  7 


98  Ireland.  [Chap. 

spoliation  following  in  its  train ;  the  power  of  the  Irishry,  and 
even  of  the  Anglo- Irish  nobles,  had  been,  to  a  considerable 
extent,  broken.  Chiefs  of  the  scattered  tribes  of  Leix  and 
Offaley  were,  it  is  said,  decoyed,  with  hundreds  of  clansmen, 
by  Sidney  to  death,  and  massacred  through  an  act  of  the 
blackest  treachery  \  The  clans  of  O'Byrne  and  O'Toole, 
which  had  often  made  raids  on  the  capital  from  the  wild  hills 
of  Wicklow,  were  hunted  down  and  slaughtered  by  little  bands 
of  soldiers  with  citizens  of  DubUn  in  their  wake ;  "  the  general 
kilhngs  of  the  Irishry"  became  a  phrase  at  the  Castle.  Ulster, 
however,  was  the  theatre,  perhaps,  of  the  worst  of  these  deeds, 
for  the  greed  and  cruelty  of  private  adventure  ran  riot  without 
control  on  the  part  of  the  state.  The  discovery  of  the  New 
World,  as  of  a  great  Land  of  Promise,  had  filled  the  mind  of 
England  with  vast  colonising  schemes ;  Ireland  was  nearer  at 
hand  than  the  Far  West ;  the  vultures,  it  was  said,  flocked  to 
make  her  their  prey ;  the  nobler  eagles  flew  across  the  ocean. 
One  body  of  Englishmen  made  an  attempt  to  found  a  settle- 
ment on  the  coasts  of  Down;  another,  under  Walter  Devereux, 
Earl  of  Essex — Elizabeth  gave  him  her  special  blessing — made 
a  similar  attempt  on  the  coast  of  Antrim.  Both  enterprises 
came  to  a  miserable  end ;  but  the  atrocities,  of  which  Essex 
and  his  men  were  guilty,  stand  out  hideously,  even  after  the 
lapse  of  centuries.  Fraud  and  chicane,  too,  fitly  succeeded 
violence,  to  effect  odious  and  unjust  conquests.  Obsolete 
claims  to  lands  possessed  by  the  Englishry  in  bygone  ages, 
before  the  Pale  had  been  narrowed,  were  set  up  and  audaci- 
ously pressed ;  Sir  Peter  Carew,  a  knight  of  Devonshire,  dis- 
tinguished himself  by  demands  of  this  kind,  which  received 
countenance  from  the  Queen  and  her  ministers.  The  alarm 
in  the  Pale,  and  far  beyond  its  borders,  became  so  great,  that 

^  The  Massacre  of  Mullaghmast,  as  it  was  called,  stands  out  in  the 
Irish  annals  as  a  most  atrocious  deed  of  blood.  If  the  story  be  even  partly 
true,  Glencoe  was  a  trifle  compared  to  it. 


IV.]      Irclajid  to  the  end  of  the  reign  of  Elizabeth.      99 

even  the  loyal  Butlers  declared  that  this  wrong  could  not  be 
endured ;  two  of  the  name  actually  appeared  in  arms. 

Meantime  troubles  had  arisen  in  the  south  of  Ireland, 
leading  ultimately  to  a  protracted  conflict,  the  most  horrible  and 
revolting  that  had  as  yet  been  witnessed.  The  honours  and 
the  lands  of  the  Desmonds  had  been  inherited  by  Gerald,  the 
thirteenth  and  last  Earl;  they  carried  with  them  the  suzerainty 
of  nearly  a  third  of  Munster,  and  the  allegiance  of  clans  and 
septs  of  the  Irishry,  from  the  plains  of  Cork  and  Limerick  to 
the  Kerry  ranges.  Gerald  was  a  feeble  and  half-hearted  man ; 
but  the  feuds  of  his  house  with  the  Butlers  had  never  ceased ; 
and  the  Butlers  had  long  been  fast  friends  of  the  Crown  and 
the  Englishry.  Elizabeth  warmly  took  their  side ;  the  Earl  of 
Ormond,  in  a  sense  her  kinsman,  had  been  a  playmate  of 
Edward  VI — that  "young  Solomon,"  as  she  described  the 
King;  and  though  she  had  turned  a  deaf  ear  to  the  counsels 
of  Sussex,  who  demanded  "  the  extirpation  of  the  Geraldine 
rebels,"  she  peremptorily  ordered  Sidney  to  "  do  Ormond 
justice"  (1567).  The  Deputy  had  soon  brought  Desmond  to  his 
knees ;  but  he  made  the  Earl's  brother,  Sir  John  of  Desmond, 
the  temporary  guardian  of  the  Desmond  lands ;  and  Desmond 
was  arrested  and  sent  to  England.  Sir  John  of  Desmond  met 
the  same  fate;  and  this,  Sidney  himself  asserts,  was  the 
occasion  of  the  long  and  bloody  strife  that  followed  \  Sir 
James  Fitzmaurice,  a  cousin  of  Desmond,  an  able  and  even  a 
brilliant  man  of  action,  took  up  arms  to  defend  his  House ;  the 
Geraldine  baronage,  and  their  Celtic  dependents,  were  hastily 
summoned  into  the  field ;  another  attempt  was  made  to  stir 
up  "a  Holy  War^"  The  time  seemed  not  without  promise; 
Elizabeth  had  been  excommunicated  by  Pius  V;  another 
Pilgrimage  of  Grace  appeared  at  hand  in  England ;  and  the 
yoke  of  Anglicanism,  as  it  was  extended,  had  begun  to  weigh 

^  Carew  MS.  March  i,  1583. 

^  See  the  proclamation,  Carew  MS.  i.  397,  1569. 


100  Ireland,  [Chap. 

heavily.  The  rising,  however,  came  to  nothing ;  Fitzmaurice, 
indeed,  made  wild  raids  through  different  parts  of  Munster 
and  Leinster ;  but  he  was  not  upheld  by  the  great  Desmond 
following;  the  Earl,  not  improbably,  disapproved  of  his  con- 
duct. Sidney,  ably  seconded  by  Sir  John  Perrott,  the  President 
of  Munster,  a  remarkable  man,  put  the  petty  insurrection 
easily  down.  Fitzmaurice  was  only  too  glad  to  make  his 
escape  from  Ireland. 

This  outbreak,  however,  was  but  the  prelude  to  a  move- 
ment of  an  infinitely  more  formidable  kind.  The  late  Catholic 
plots  in  England  had  failed;  Mary  Stuart  was  made  to  feel 
she  was  a  close  prisoner ;  she  had  been  the  cause  of  the  doom 
of  Norfolk  (1572);  the  great  northern  Earls  had  appeared  in  the 
field  in  vain.  But  Rome  had  found  fresh  weapons  to  renew  the 
contest  with  the  heretic  Queen  she  had  banned  and  proscribed; 
England  swarmed  with  seminary  priests  and  Jesuits  stirring  up 
rebellion  in  the  name  of  the  faith ;  and  if  Philip  still  held 
cautiously  aloof,  the  duel  between  England  and  Spain  had 
begun,  in  the  exploits  of  Drake  and  of  English  volunteers  in 
arms  against  Alva  in  the  Low  Countries.  Things  in  Ireland 
seemed  to  portend  trouble  ;  the  EngHshry  of  the  Pale  had 
deeply  resented  an  attempt  made  by  Sidney  to  levy  a  tax  by 
the  prerogative,  without  the  consent  of  Parliament,  and  the 
efforts  made  to  impose  the  Anglican  doctrines  on  them ;  and 
there  were  disturbances  in  Ulster,  and  in  parts  of  Connaught. 
Gregory  XIII,  vindictive  and  sanguine,  seems  to  have  per- 
suaded himself  that,  in  England  and  Ireland,  there  would  be 
a  general  rising  in  the  quarrel  of  the  Church ;  and  he  lent  a 
ready  ear  to  plans  for  the  Crusade.  These  were  soon  forth- 
coming, obscure  as  his  advisers  were;  Fitzmaurice,  who  had 
gone  from  Court  to  Court  in  Europe,  to  seek  assistance  in  the 
cause  of  Ireland,  was  eager  to  call  the  Geraldines  to  arms 
again,  and  to  make  another  desperate  appeal  to  fortune ;  the 
Pope  was  convinced  that  a  Holy  War  would,  this  time,  infallibly 


IV.]      Ireland  to  the  end  of  the  reign  of  ElizabctJi.     lOi 

succeed.  A  descent  on  Ireland  was  arranged  at  the  Vatican  \ 
the  enterprise  was  placed  under  the  auspices  of  Nicholas 
Sanders  and  Father  Allen,  two  celebrated  emissaries  of  the 
Holy  See ;  a  Papal  banner  was  solemnly  blessed ;  Fitzmaurice 
was  seconded  by  Thomas  Stukely,  an  English  adventurer, 
driven  from  his  country,  but  for  many  years  in  the  pay  of 
Spain;  nor  can  it  be  doubted  that  Philip  assented,  nay 
promised  to  send  Stukely  with  an  expeditionary  force.  The 
King,  however,  did  nol  fulfil  his  pledge ;  Stukely  put  to  sea, 
indeed,  with  some  eight  hundred  Spaniards;  but  he  received 
orders  ere  long  that  made  him  land  in  Portugal.  Fitzmaurice 
nevertheless,  with  Sanders  and  Allen,  reached  the  coasts  of 
Kerry  in  the  autumn  of  1579;  the  sign  in  which  they  were  to 
conquer  was  unfurled;  and  the  Irishry  of  Munster  were  adjured 
to  rise  in  the  cause  of  the  Pope  and  the  head  of  the  Geraldine 
name. 

The  Earl  of  Desmond  had  been  permitted,  long  before  this 
time,  to  go  back  to  Ireland.  But  he  had  been  subjected  to  the 
severest  conditions ;  he  had  actually  made  a  surrender  of  his 
lands  to  the  Crown ;  he  was  watched  with  suspicion  by  the 
heads  of  the  Government.  Whether,  at  this  conjuncture,  he 
had  been  plotting  treason ;  or  whether  he  was  goaded  into  a 
rebellion  he  deplored;  or  whether,  like  a  weak  creature,  he 
rushed  madly  to  his  fate,  he  suddenly  threw  in  his  lot  with 
Fitzmaurice,  and  began  a  contest,  which  he  ought  to  have 
known  was  hopeless.  A  great  and  general  rising,  however, 
took  place ;  the  name  of  the  Desmond,  if  not  of  the  Pope, 
was  a  talisman;  and  from  the  hills  of  Tipperary  to  the 
Atlantic,  the  Munster  Geraldines  and  their  Celtic  vassals 
sprang  to  arms.  A  grave  disaster  befell  the  rebels  at  the 
outset;  Fitzmaurice,  a  man  of  parts  and  resource — he  had 
never  put  faith  in  the  weapons  of  the  Church,  but  irreverently 
trusted  those  of  the  flesh — was  slain  in  a  skirmish  with  one  of 
the  chiefs  of  Connaught,  who  characteristically  refused  to  take 


102  Ireland,  [Chap. 

part  with  him,  and  was  only  too  wiUing  to  join  the  Englishry. 
The  rebelhon,  nevertheless,  assumed  vast  proportions,  and 
gradually  became  of  a  most  frightful  character.  Its  theatre 
was  the  wide  expanse  of  hill,  valley,  and  plain,  stretching  from 
the  range  of  the  Galties,  to  the  distant  sea  of  Kerry ;  and  this 
was  an  almost  impenetrable  region  at  the  time.  Immense 
masses  of  forest  covered  whole  counties ;  the  roads  were  few 
and  bad,  the  defiles  intricate ;  and  the  open  lands — oases  in 
an  unexplored  wilderness — crowned  with  the  castles  of  Geral- 
dine  and  Celtic  chiefs,  and  dotted  with  the  habitations  of 
their  vassals  and  serfs,  were  scarcely  accessible  through 
morasses,  thickets,  and  all  kinds  of  obstacles.  This  great 
tract  was  entered  by  a  few  hundred  English  troops,  supported 
by  irregular  bands  of  the  Butlers ;  but  the  progress  of  the 
invaders  was  slow  in  the  extreme,  and  scarcely  anything  was 
accomplished  for  many  months.  The  struggle,  as  always 
happens,  in  instances  of  the  kind,  acquired  from  the  first  a 
terrible  aspect ;  two  or  three  fortresses  of  the  Desmonds  were 
sacked,  their  garrisons  ruthlessly  flung  from  the  battlements ; 
fires  rose  from  leagues  of  woodland,  and  devoured  hundreds 
of  wretched  victims ;  the  infuriated  soldiery,  often  caught 
in  ambushes,  without  discipline,  and  forced  to  live  on  pillage, 
committed  atrocities  fearful  to  record.  The  Geraldines  and 
their  Irish  allies  resisted  savagely ;  issuing  from  fastnesses 
and  labyrinths  of  the  great  forest  wastes,  they  swooped  down 
on  outlying  towns,  cut  off  hostile  parties,  and,  in  a  word, 
stung  fiercely,  like  venomous  insects  driven  from  their  nests. 
The  horrors  of  the  worst  kind  of  guerilla  waifare  raged, 
unchecked,  over  the  fairest  parts  of  Munster. 

The  far-spreading  rising  had  ere  long  received  unexpected 
support  from  two  quarters.  The  Englishry  of  the  Pale,  we 
have  seen,  had  had  grounds  of  complaint ;  Lord  Baltinglass 
and  other  Anglo-Irish  nobles — the  Earl  of  Kildare  perhaps 
shared    their    counsels^broke    out    into    rebellion    at    this 


IV.]      Ireland  to  the  end  of  the  reign  of  Elizabeth.     103 

conjuncture.  The  name  of  the  Holy  Father  was  again 
employed;  and  Sanders,  perfectly  aware  by  this  time, — his 
colleague  Allen  had  been  slain  in  a  skirmish— that  the 
Geraldine  war  in  Munster  was  not  a  war  maintained  by  real 
allies  of  Rome,  sought  to  become  a  champion  of  the  Pope  in 
Leinster.  An  accident  gave  Baltinglass  temporary  success ; 
Lord  Grey  de  Wilton,  who  had  been  made  Deputy,  carelessly 
attacked  the  rebels  in  one  of  the  defiles  of  Wicklow,  and  was 
defeated  with  not  inconsiderable  loss ;  the  Celtic  clans  of  this 
mountainous  region,  as  had  often  happened  before,  made  the 
overthrow  complete.  The  rebellion,  however,  speedily  col- 
lapsed, no  doubt  because  the  central  Government  was  at  hand ; 
and  Baltinglass  and  several  of  his  companions  were  sent  to  the 
block.  The  second  enterprise  was  of  more  importance,  and 
seems  to  have  caused  much  alarm  in  England.  PhiHp  made  a 
secret  attempt  to  send  aid  to  Desmond;  a  body  of  Spaniards 
and  Italians  effected  a  landing  near  Smerwick,  on  the  sea- 
board of  Kerry,  a  principal  seat  of  the  Geraldine  rising. 
Money  and  munitions  were  in  abundance,  and  a  fort  was 
built;  but  the  invaders  were  surrounded  by  an  English 
squadron ;  Grey,  hastening  from  Dublin,  attacked  them  from 
the  coast;  they  surrendered,  it  would  appear,  at  discretion. 
They  were  deliberately  butchered,  in  cold  blood,  on  the  plea 
that  they  had  no  commission  from  the  King  of  Spain. 

A  determined  effort  was  now  made  to  bring  the  Geraldine 
war  to  an  end.  Pelham,  a  stern  soldier,  was  placed  at  the 
head  of  three  or  four  thousand  English  troops ;  the  Earl  of 
Ormond  marched  with  his  feudal  levies ;  both  leaders  sought 
to  destroy  the  remaining  Desmond  castles,  and  to  force  the 
rebels  to  fight  a  decisive  battle.  These  attempts,  however, 
were  almost  fruitless ;  more  than  one  stronghold  was  razed  to 
the  ground,  but  the  enemy  refused  to  be  brought  to  bay ;  and 
the  swarms  of  the  Irishry  still  proved  dangerous,  amidst  wilds 
where  pursuit  was  hopeless.     Another  method  of  warfare  was 


I04  Ireland.  [Chap. 

then  adopted ;  the  country  was  turned  into  a  desert  by  the 
invading  force ;  the  growing  crops  were  rooted  up,  the  harvests 
burned ;  the  population  was  ruthlessly  hunted  down ;  no 
mercy  was  shown  to  sex  or  old  age.  This  horrible  work  went 
on  for  nearly  two  years ;  the  retainers  of  the  Butlers  made 
themselves  conspicuous  for  the  barbarities  they  inflicted  on 
their  foes  of  centuries.  Devastation  and  slaughter  told  at  last ; 
nobles  and  chiefs  fell  off  from  a  lost  cause ;  clans  broke  up, 
and  melted  away,  to  escape  famine  and  misery  worse  than 
death ;  and  many  were  forced  to  take  up  arms  against  former 
comrades  to  save  their  own  lives.  The  terms  the  traitors  were 
compelled  to  accept  show  how  frightful  the  struggle  had 
become ;  no  Irish  soldier  was  promised  quarter  until  he  had 
brought  with  him  an  Irishman's  head.  Meanwhile  the  un- 
happy Earl  of  Desmond  was  driven  from  place  to  place,  with  a 
price  set  on  his  head,  and  vainly  endeavoured  to  avoid  the 
certain  coming  doom.  He  had  feebly  let  things  drift,  and 
shown  no  skill  or  courage ;  he  had  made  offers  to  Pelham  that 
did  him  no  honour.  Yet  he  was  still  attended  by  hundreds  of 
devoted  followers — so  great  was  even  now  the  powder  of  the 
Geraldine  name.  He  was  at  last  surprised  and  killed  in  a 
nook  of  Kerry ;  the  war  had  lasted  nearly  four  years ;  its 
appalling  traditions  still  live  in  Munster. 

The  Crusade  of  Gregory  had  proved  a  failure ;  the 
Desmond  war  and  the  rising  of  the  Pale  were  not,  at  bottom, 
religious  movements.  Religion,  however,  had  part  in  them; 
its  influence  in  the  troubles  of  Ireland  was  on  the  increase. 
The  Anglican  Church,  growing  out  of  the  Church  of  the  Pale, 
was  not  loved  even  in  the  Pale  itself;  it  had  become  more  full 
of  abuses  than  ever — a  mere  v/hited  sepulchre  it  was  scorn- 
fully called;  its  heads  shared  in  the  misdeeds  of  the  Irish 
Government ;  it  was  associated  with  oppression,  and  had  begun 
to  persecute ;  its  doctrines  and  ritual,  foreign  and  Protestant, 
were    being    forced    on    the    Irishry,    as    English    rule    made 


IV.]      Ireland  to  the  end  of  the  reign  of  Elizabeth.     105 

progress;  it  carried  with  it  not  peace  and  goodwill,  but  the 
pitiless  sword  of  the  alien  conqueror.  The  ancient  Celtic 
Church,  on  the  other  hand,  had  become  a  spiritual  outpost  of 
Rome;  the  Pope  appointed  the  Bishops  even  more  than  of 
old;  the  priesthood  hated  the  EngHshry  with  quickened  hatred. 
The  Church  was  still  filled  with  survivors  of  the  clergy  of  the 
Religious  Houses ;  it  was  crowded  with  emissaries  of  the  Holy 
See  denouncing  Elizabeth  the  arch-heretic ;  its  influence, 
powerful  among  its  superstitious  flocks,  was  being  concentrated 
against  the  power  of  England.  The  aspect  and  character  of 
the  two  Churches  had  thus  changed  in  the  course  of  time  :  the 
Church  of  the  Pale,  no  longer  Roman,  but  Protestant,  was  an 
enemy  of  Rome ;  the  Celtic  Church,  condemned  as  heterodox 
of  old,  had  become  a  faithful  satellite  of  the  Pope ;  and  while 
the  ancient  discords  were  more  fierce  than  ever,  the  Anglican 
Church  had  been  made  a  support  and  a  sign  of  conquest, 
a  moral  influence  of  the  worst  kind,  while  the  Celtic  Church 
had  become  a  rallying  point  for  the  Irishry,  its  priesthood 
foes  of  England,  and  champions  of  the  race  being  conquered. 
The  growing  strife  between  Anglo-Saxon  and  Celt  was  thus 
being  embittered  by  a  growing  strife  of  religion;  this  added 
fuel  to  a  rapidly  extending  flame ;  and  yet,  we  repeat,  it  was 
not  yet  intense,  nothing  resembling  what  it  was  to  be  in  the 
future. 

The  most  remarkable  event  at  this  time  in  Ireland  was 
the  disposition  made  of  the  great  Desmond  possessions.  The 
Earl,  we  have  seen,  had  surrendered  these  to  the  Queen ; 
and  even  long  before  he  drew  the  sword,  a  body  of  adventurers 
had  proposed  to  take  over  his  lands  from  the  Crown,  and  to 
plant  in  them  a  great  English  colony.  Cecil,  to  do  him  justice, 
rejected  this  scheme;  yet,  not  improbably,  it  reached  Des- 
mond's ear,  and  this  may  have  been  one  cause  of  his  ill- 
fated  rising.  The  project,  however,  was  eagerly  favoured, 
when  his  vast  territory  had  become  forfeited;  though  it  de- 


io6  Ireland.  [Chap. 

serves    notice    that    a  confiscation   on   this  scale   had   voices 
against  it  in  the  Irish   Parliament  \     The  immense  domains 
of  the  famous  Geraldine   House — some  half-million  of  acres 
held  in  complete  ownership — were  parcelled  out  among  "un- 
dertakers," as  they  were  called — English  gentlemen,  for  the 
most    part,    from    Devon    and    Somerset;    and    the    English 
Council  made  a  serious   effort  to  secure  the   success    of  the 
new    settlement.       In    the    attempts    at    colonisation    made 
hitherto,  especially  in  that  of  Leix  and  Offaley,  the  colonists, 
it  was  recognised,  were  much   too    few;    they  could   not  es- 
tablish  themselves   in    the    country;    they  either  disappeared 
or  became  a  feeble  remnant  unable  to  make  English  influence 
felt.     Precautions  were  taken  against  results  like  these;   the 
undertakers  were  to  Hve  on  the  lands  allotted  to  them ;  the 
grants  were  not  of  large  extent ;  forts  and  houses  and  dwell- 
ings were    to   be   built;   and    the   lands    were    to    be  largely 
peopled  with  occupiers  of  the  soil  of  English  origin.     The  ex- 
periment, however,  was  not  successful ;  a  considerable  number 
of  undertakers  obtained  grants  ;   some  of  the  descendants  of 
these  are    owners    of  lands    to   this    day    in   the    counties    of 
Limerick,  of  Cork,  and  of  Kerry.     But  many  of  the  under- 
takers eluded  the  terms  imposed  on  them ;  never  visited  their 
possessions   and   became    absentees;    and    never   established 
EngUsh   tenants   in    them.     In    other,  and   perhaps  frequent 
instances,    the   phenomenon    of  the    past   was   repeated;    the 
Enghsh    farmers   and   labourers    sank   into    the    mass    of  the 
Irishry  around,  and  were  soon  "degenerate." 

A  brief  period  of  repose  followed,  one  of  the  few  seasons 
of  promise  in  Irish  history.  Sir  John  Perrott — we  have  met 
him  before — was  at  the  head  of  affairs  at  the  Castle  ;  he  was 
the  best  governor  of  Ireland  in  this  disturbed  century.  One 
act  of  wrong  may  be  laid   to  his  charge ;  evil  statecraft  was 

^  The  lands  held  only  in  mere  suzerainty  were  not  comprised  in  the 
forfeiture. 


IV.]      Ireland  to  the  end  of  the  reign  of  Elizabeth.     107 

a  characteristic  of  his  age;  he  kidnapped  the  heir  of  the 
O'Donnells  of  the  North ;  and  the  deed  was  to  have  untoward 
results.  But  this  is  the  only  blot  on  his  good  name ;  his  rule 
was  marked  signally  by  wisdom  and  justice.  Sir  John  was 
probably  a  bastard  of  Henry  VIII;  his  ideas  of  government 
in  Ireland  were  those  of  his  father.  He  had  been  deeply 
impressed  by  the  horrors  of  the  Desmond  war,  largely  due 
to  the  weakness  of  the  English  forces ;  and — in  accordance 
with  the  experience  of  ages — he  entreated  the  Queen  to  keep 
up  a  real  army  in  Ireland.  He  also  extended  the  hmits  of 
English  power,  for  he  created  seven  new  counties  in  Ulster : 
if  this  creation  was,  to  a  great  extent,  nominal,  in  other 
respects  he  almost  exactly  followed  the  best  parts  of  the  Irish 
policy  of  Henry  VIII.  He  assembled  a  Parliament  in  1585: 
like  that  of  1540,  it  was  attended  by  Irish  chiefs;  he  seems  to 
have  really  won  their  hearts.  The  most  striking  feature  of 
his  conduct,  however,  and  that  which  makes  him  most  nearly 
resemble  the  King,  was  the  settlement  he  effected  of  a  large 
part  of  Connaught.  Many  of  the  chiefs  of  the  province  sur- 
rendered their  lands,  and  took  them  back  to  be  held  on 
English  tenure ;  the  process,  indeed,  had  been  going  on, 
throughout  Ireland,  for  a  series  of  years.  The  new  mode  of 
ownership  had,  for  some  time — if  this  was  a  narrow  and 
btrained  construction — been  interpreted  as  interfering  with, 
perhaps  subverting,  the  ancient  Celtic  organisation  of  the  land, 
as  annulling,  at  least  greatly  lessening,  the  rights  of  the  free 
Ceile  and  of  tenants  of  the  superior  classes ;  there  is  too 
much  reason  to  believe  that,  in  many  instances,  the  chiefs 
accepted  these  grants  for  this  very  purpose;  they  had  been 
encroaching  for  ages  on  their  less  dependent  vassals.  Perrott 
provided  against  this  abuse  of  power ;  in  most  of  the  grants 
made  to  the  chiefs  of  Connaught,  their  inferiors  were  made 
tenants  holding  of  the  Crown — rents  being  substituted  for  the 
old  Celtic  renders — and  the  chiefs  were  indemnified  by  various 


io8  Ireland.  [Chap. 

means.  It  has  been  truly  remarked  that,  in  this  way,  "  a  large 
peasant  proprietary"  was  created;  and  though  a  President  of 
Connaught  was,  ere  long,  guilty  of  many  acts  of  odious  oppres- 
sion, "  the  creation  was  probably  the  cause  of  the  comparative 
tranquillity  of  Ireland  for  many  years'."  Indeed  not  a  few 
of  the  chiefs  of  Connaught  took  up  arms  for  England,  at  a 
great  subsequent  crisis  ;  and  this  settlement  of  the  land  may 
have  been  a  reason.  Perrott  left  Ireland,  it  should  be  added, 
regretted  by  all  sorts  and  conditions  of  men. 

The  events  that  followed  the  departure  of  Perrott  strikingly 

illustrate  the  fluctuations  in  Irish  policy,  which  so  often  marked 

the  course  of  the  Government  in  power.     Sir  William  Fitz- 

william  became  Deputy ;  he  was  of  an  arbitrary  and  tyrannical 

nature ;  a  Verres,  too,  in  unscrupulous  greed ;   his  rule,  and 

that  of  his  next  two  or  three  successors,  was  the  very  opposite 

to  that  of  Perrott.     Ulster  had  not  yet  been  nearly  subdued ; 

the  authority  of  England  in  that  province  was   extended   by 

acts  of  all  kinds   of  oppression.     More  than    one  chief  was 

treacherously  done    to    death ;   large   ransoms   were    extorted 

from  others  ;  the  advance  of  the  law  and  the  faith  of  England 

was  accompanied  by  a  series  of  wrongs ;  a  chain  of  forts  was 

constructed    to    bridle   the    country.      These    severities    were 

certainly  the  main  cause  of  the  last  great  rising  of  Elizabeth's 

reign,    which    seriously    threatened   her   rule,    for   a    time,    in 

Ireland,   and  brought  prominently   out    the  remarkable  parts 

of  a  most  distinguished   specimen   of  the  Irish  race.     Hugh 

O'Neill  was  the  second  son  of  Matthew,  Lord  of  Dungannon, 

who,  we  have   seen,   had  perished  in   a    quarrel  with    Shane. 

Matthew  had  always  adhered  to  the  "English  interest";  and, 

after  his  death,  Hugh  had  been  sent  to  England,  and  carefully 

educated  at  the  Court  of  the  Queen.     His  early  associations, 

therefore,  were  wholly  English ;  unlike  his  uncle  Shane,  he  had 

ample  means  to  become  conversant  with  English  affairs,  and 

1  Lecky,  History  of  England  in  the  Eighteenth  Century ^  ii.  105. 


IV.]      Ireland  to  the  end  of  the  reign  of  ElizabetJi.     109 

to  form  a  just  estimate  of  the  power  of  England  ;  and  unlike 
him,  too,  he  had  much  more  of  the  Anglo-Norman  than  of 
the  Celt  in  him — the  O'Neills  and  the  Kildares  were  nearly 
allied  in  blood — for  he  could  grasp  realities,  and  had  no  vain 
fancies ;  he  possessed  not  only,  in  a  high  degree,  ability  in  the 
field  and  wisdom  in  council,  but  also  prudence,  real  insight 
and  judgment.  And  the  first  acts  in  the  life  of  O'Neill  prove 
that  he  sought  to  stand  well  with  the  English  Government.  He 
had  made  a  name  for  himself  in  the  Desmond  war,  he  had 
received  the  thanks  of  the  high  Council  of  State.  The  Earldom 
of  Tyrone,  too,  was  at  his  express  request  revived  by  Elizabeth 
in  his  favour,  though  with  a  strictness  that  made  him  her 
mere  vassal ;  the  object  of  this  policy,  he  must  have  seen,  was 
to  make  him  a  check  upon  Tirlogh  Lenagh,  the  nominal  suc- 
cessor of  Shane  O'Neill ;  and  yet  he  executed  his  trust  faith- 
fully. He  made  himself  an  instrument  of  English  rule  even 
in  the  territories  of  the  O'Neills,  and  treated  several  of  his 
prisoners  with  stern  severity. 

The  evil  deeds  of  the  men  at  the  Castle,  however,  gradually 
turned  O'Neill  against  the  English  Government;  he  felt,  he 
wrote  himself,  that  his  "destruction  was  planned."  He  had, 
also,  peculiar  grievances  of  his  own,  beside  the  wrongs  that  had 
been  done  in  Ulster;  the  heir  of  the  O'Donnells,  who  had  been 
entrapped  by  Perrott,  had  effected  his  escape,  and  wedded  his 
sister;  and  he  had  a  deadly  feud  with  Sir  Henry  Bagenal,  an 
EngUsh  officer  of  rank,  who  held  lands  of  the  O'Neills.  He 
had  thus  private  injuries  to  avenge;  and,  on  the  death  of 
Tirlogh  Eenagh  Tyrone,  as  he  should  be  called,  was  elected 
their  chief  by  the  voice  of  his  tribesmen,  and  assumed  the  old 
hereditary  title  of  The  O'Neill.  It  is  probable,  however,  that 
he  took  this  step  rather  from  necessity  than  of  his  own  desire : 
he  was  already  suspected  by  the  Irish  Government;  he  might 
have  been  driven  from  his  lands,  perhaps  murdered,  had  he 
rejected  the  offer  of  his  clan ;  he  consented  to  follow  a  course 


no  Ireland.  [Chap. 

he  perhaps  regretted.  But  that  Tyrone  should  be  declared  the 
O'Neill,  that  he  should  place  himself  in  a  position,  in  which  he 
might  lay  claim  to  the  suzerainty  of  Ulster,  perhaps  of  Ireland, 
was,  as  in  the  case  of  Shane,  thirty  years  before,  rank  treason 
in  the  eyes  of  the  Queen  and  her  Council;  it  was  resolved  to 
make  war  against  this  "second  arch  rebel."  Yet  negotiations 
went  on  for  many  months,  for  Elizabeth  evidently  did  not  wish 
to  strike;  and  Tyrone  made  an  impression  on  her  mind  by 
able  expositions  of  the  numberless  wrongs  that  had  been  done 
to  the  chiefs  of  the  Northern  Province. 

The  sword  was  not  drawn  until  1596;  the  contest  was 
desultory  and  intermittent  for  a  considerable  time.  The 
English  forces  in  Ireland  were,  as  usual,  weak;  the  nobles  of 
the  Pale  were  slow  to  appear  in  arms;  the  Irish  Council  ere 
long  discovered  that  it  had  to  deal  with  a  far-sighted  and  most 
able  enemy,  Tyrone  sent  envoys  to  Madrid  and  Rome, 
adjuring  Philip  to  avenge  the  Armada,  and  Clement  VHI  to 
support  a  persecuted  Church;  more  important  certainly,  he 
worked  hard  to  stir  up  the  ashes  of  conflagrations  of  the  past, 
and  to  arouse  the  Irishry,  throughout  the  island,  to  unite  in 
something  like  a  national  war.  But  the  most  remarkable 
feature  of  his  conduct  was  this :  in  complete  contrast  to  Shane 
O'Neill,  he  made  friendly  overtures  to  the  chiefs  of  Ulster, 
and  won  them,  almost  to  a  man,  to  his  side;  his  kinsman,  now 
head  of  the  great  O'Donnell  clan,  threw  himself  passionately 
into  his  cause;  the  two  principal  tribes  of  the  North,  divided 
for  ages  by  angry  feuds,  were  thus  combined  against  English 
rule  for  the  first  time.  The  war  went  on  fitfully  for  nearly  two 
years,  in  the  wide  region  of  forest  and  plain,  broken  by 
innumerable  water  lines,  which  extends  from  Lough  Neagh  to 
the  heads  of  the  Shannon;  the  Irishry  were,  on  the  whole, 
victorious.  Many  chiefs  of  Connaught  took  part  with  the 
English,  grateful  for  the  wise  and  just  policy  of  Sir  John 
Perrott,  notwithstanding  recent  acts  of  wrong  done  by  Bingham, 


IV.]     Ireland  to  the  end  of  the  reign  of  Elizabeth.     1 1 1 

a  President  of  the  Province;  but  they  were  defeated  by 
O'Donnell,  among  the  hills  of  Roscommon.  Tyrone  himself 
was  nearly  always  successful;  he  turned  his  light-armed  kerne 
to  the  best  advantage;  defended  position  after  position,  with 
admirable  skill,  baffling,  harassing,  and  often  beating  his  ex- 
asperated foes;  and  more  than  one  English  commander,  who 
had  won  his  spurs  in  the  Low  Countries,  succumbed  to  his 
strokes. 

A  signal  disaster  of  the  main  English  force  sent  ere  long  a 
passionate  thrill,  far  and  wide,  through  Ireland.  Tyrone,  fully 
alive  to  the  essential  difference  between  the  Celtic  kerne  and 
the  English  soldiery,  had  armed  and  disciplined  parts  of  his 
levies,  for  some  years,  on  the  English  model;  the  Irish  footman, 
for  the  first  time  in  history,  was  enabled  to  encounter  the 
English  on  equal  terms.  The  Irish  leader  had  been  laying 
siege  to  a  fort  called  Portmore,  on  the  verge  of  Armagh;  his 
bitter  enemy,  Bagenal,  marched  to  its  relief,  with  an  army 
perhaps  5000  strong;  on  the  r4th  of  August,  1598,  he  found 
Tyrone  with  his  troops,  probably  in  equal  numbers,  entrenched 
in  a  formidable  position  at  Yellow  Ford  behind  a  small  feeder 
of  the  Blackwater.  Bagenal  pushed  forward,  through  well-laid 
obstacles;  Tyrone  had  placed  a  body  of  picked  men  in 
ambush;  and  when  the  English  were  entangled  in  the  difficult 
ground,  they  were  charged  in  front  and  flank  with  irresistible 
effect.  The  swords  of  the  Irishry  were  soon  cleaving  their  way 
through  a  multitude  of  panic-stricken  fugitives;  the  rout  was 
complete,  and  for  some  time  the  English  soldier  would  not  face 
his  long-despised  enemy'. 

Tyrone  instantly  turned  his  success  to  account.  He  sent 
emissaries  again  to  Spain  and  the  Pope;  called  on  the  clans  of 

^  In  the  picture  of  the  battle,  in  the  Library  of  Trinity  College,  Dublin, 
the  English  and  Irish  soldiers  are  armed  in  the  same  manner  and  are  in  the 
same  formations.  Leland,  ii.  336,  says  that  the  English,  man  to  man,  were 
inferior  to  their  adversaries. 


112  Ireland.  [Chap. 

Wicklow  to  rise,  and  on  the  remnants  of  those  of  Leix  and 
Offaley;  and  hastened  in  person  southwards,  in  the  hope  of 
arousing  another  rebellion,  in  the  great  name  of  the  Desmond, 
still  deep  in  the  hearts  of  thousands  of  devoted  men.  The 
Government  in  England  was  gravely  alarmed;  Elizabeth  des- 
patched Essex,  the  hero  of  Cadiz,  with  an  army  of  fully  20,000 
men,  to  crush  "  her  Irish  rebel "  with  overwhelming  force. 
But  Essex  proved  a  most  incapable  leader,  brilliant  as  he 
certainly  was  in  fight;  he  marched  towards  Munster  in  the  first 
instance,  and  he  was  defeated,  with  heavy  loss,  on  the  edge  of 
the  Pale,  by  chiefs  of  the  O'Moores  and  the  O'Connors  burning 
to  avenge  their  wrongs.  His  subsequent  conduct  is  most 
difficult  to  understand;  it  gave  colour  to  the  charges  soon  made 
against  him.  The  English  commander  consented  to  meet 
Tyrone;  in  a  parley  that  followed,  the  artful  Irish  chief  perhaps 
unfolded  schemes  that  could  only  lead  to  treason,  and  certainly 
sent  his  adversary  away  outwitted,  and  pledged  to  an  ignomi- 
nious truce.  The  army  of  Essex,  already  shattered,  was  spread 
over  different  parts  of  the  country;  had  Tyrone  received  the 
assistance  he  had  some  right  to  expect,  the  power  of  England 
in  Ireland  might  have  been  shaken  to  its  base. 

Once  more,  however,  foreign  aid  to  Ireland  failed:  the 
friendly  sails  from  Spain  were  delayed;  the  gift  of  the  Pope,  a 
crown  of  feathers — a  phcenix  rising  from  its  ashes — must  have 
seemed  a  mockery;  the  "  Earl  of  Straw,"  the  heir  of  the 
Desmonds — he  was  so  called  in  ridicule  by  Celtic  wit,  which 
seldom  spares  a  jest  at  misfortune — could  not  gather  together 
the  Munster  Geraldines;  the  opportunity,  at  the  decisive 
moment,  was  lost.  Essex  was  recalled  by  his  indignant 
sovereign;  the  EngHsh  army,  largely  increased,  was  placed  in 
the  hands  of  Charles  Blount,  Lord  Mountjoy,  a  soldier  of  parts 
and  of  long  experience.  Tyrone  and  the  Northern  chiefs  were 
left  almost  isolated,  though  the  Irish  tribes  on  the  borders  of 
the  Pale  kept  detachments  of  the  invaders  in  check,  sallying 


IV.]      Ireland  to  the  end  of  the  reign  of  Elizabeth.     1 1 3 

from  the  glens  of  Wicklow,  and  across  the  waste  of  Allen. 
Mountjoy  advanced  steadily,  adopting  the  system  of  warfare 
proved  to  be  successful  before;  his  army,  carefully  supplied 
from  the  rear,  established  itself  by  degrees  in  the  enemy's 
country,  growing  in  strength,  as  it  moved  slowly  forward;  and 
points  of  vantage  were  occupied  and  firmly  held.  Tyrone, 
nevertheless,  and  his  brother-in-law  O'Donnell,  made  a  stubborn 
and  protracted  resistance:  the  scene  of  the  contest — the  strip  of 
country  between  Lough  Neagh  and  the  long  course  of  the 
Erne,  and  covered  by  the  Blackwater  in  front — was  not  dense 
with  forests  like  the  Desmond  land,  but  a  labyrinth  of  rivers, 
lakes,  and  woods;  the  Irish  chiefs  long  held  Mountjoy  at  bay, 
making  good  use  of  their  water  lines,  often  striking  outlying 
posts  with  effect.  The  English  commander,  having  made  his 
base  secure,  ere  long  pursued  the  atrocious  but  efficacious 
methods,  which  had  at  last  prevailed  in  the  great  Desmond 
rising.  His  forces  were  pushed  forward  in  separate  bodies, 
carrying  devastation  and  death  in  their  track;  their  march  was 
seen  in  the  flames  of  hamlet  and  cottage,  and  in  the  destruction 
of  everything  that  could  yield  food;  and  the  Irishry,  armed 
and  unarmed,  were  slaughtered  wholesale.  The  barrier  of 
Ulster  was  at  last  forced;  the  torrent  of  invasion  rolled 
forward,  sweeping  obstacles  away  in  its  lava-like  course,  until 
it  reached  the  interior  of  the  Northern  Province.  Still,  how- 
ever, Tyrone  and  O'Donnell  fought  sternly  on;  few  dependent 
chiefs  and  tribes  fell  away;  the  horrible  struggle  was  main- 
tained for  a  long  succession  of  months. 

The  arrival  at  last  of  help  from  Spain  gave  a  new  turn 
to  the  still  doubtful  contest.  Don  Juan  D'Aquila  landed  at 
Kinsale,  in  the  south  of  Munster,  in  September  1601  ;  he  was 
at  the  head  of  3000  or  4000  men,  followed  by  another  little 
expeditionary  force.  The  enterprise,  however,  had  been  ill 
directed;  the  descent  was  to  have  been  effected  on  the  coast 
of  Sligo,  where  Tyrone  could  easily  have  joined  his  allies,  and 

xM.  I.  8 


1 14  Ireland.  [Chap. 

made  the  war  in  Ulster  formidable  in  the  extreme.  But 
phantoms  rose  before  the  Spanish  seamen ;  the  wreck  of  the 
Armada  had  reached  that  coast,  and  ten  or  twelve  large 
warships  had  perished ;  the  invaders  had  chosen  to  follow  the 
old  path  of  commerce  between  Spain  and  the  southern  parts 
of  Ireland.  Tyrone  and  O'Donnell  found  themselves  com- 
pelled to  move  across  Ireland  from  North  to  South;  their 
famishing  levies  dwindled  away  rapidly,  in  a  march  of  nearly 
two  hundred  miles,  through  intricate  obstacles  of  many  kinds ; 
they  were  but  an  armed  mob  when  they  reached  the  hill 
ranges  overlooking  Kinsale.  By  this  time  an  English  fleet 
blockaded  the  port.  Mountjoy,  loyally  seconded  by  the  nobles 
of  the  Pale — true  as  steel  like  their  English  Catholic  brethren 
in  the  face  of  the  detested  Spaniard — had  laid  siege  to  the 
place  inland;  the  foreigners  were  hemmed  in  and  shut  up, 
Tyrone  proposed  to  give  his  troops  rest ;  to  form  an  en- 
trenched camp  and  to  hold  a  position,  from  which  he  could 
fall  on  his  enemy's  rear ;  O'Donnell  urged  an  immediate 
attack ;  the  counsels  of  Celtic  rashness  prevailed.  Mountjoy 
drew  a  detachment  from  his  lines ;  the  rebel  army,  weakened 
and  harassed,  was  easily  routed ;  the  divisions  of  its  chiefs 
contributed,  perhaps,  to  the  result.  The  Spaniards  were,  ere 
long,  permitted  to  depart,  Don  Juan  cursing  his  allies  with 
true  Castilian  pride ;  and,  after  a  few  struggles,  marked  by  the 
heroic  defence  of  Dunboy,  a  great  Celtic  stronghold,  the  long 
protracted  rebellion  hnally  collapsed.  Ireland  lay  prostrate  at 
the  feet  of  Mounijoy  ;  but  the  resistance  of  Tyrone  had  been  so 
formidable  that  his  fate  was  very  different  from  that  of  Shane 
O'Neill.  Clearheaded,  and  able  to  see  things  as  they  were, 
he  accepted  the  terms  offered  by  Mountjoy ;  he  renounced 
the  princely  title  of  the  O'Neill,  but  was  allowed  to  retain  his 
lands  and  his  earldom.  It  is  said  that  he  shed  tears  when  he 
heard  of  Elizabeth's  death ;  he  was  a  great  man  who  felt 
sympathy  Avith  a  great  woman. 


IV.]      Ireland  to  the  end  of  the  reign  of  Elizabeth.      1 1 5 

The  state  of  Ireland,  after  the  contest  with  Tyrone,  was 
one  of  appalling  desolation  and  woe.  Even  within  the  Pale, 
but  little  ravaged  by  war,  a  seat  of  trade  and  comparative 
order,  the  price  of  the  necessaries  of  life  had  risen  fourfold ; 
beyond,  from  the  hills  of  Antrim  to  the  shores  of  Cork,  the 
land  was  a  waste  of  ruin  and  despair.  The  commerce  with  Spain 
had  almost  disappeared ;  the  town  of  Galway  has  never  re- 
covered this  loss.  Whole  counties  were  strown  with  the  wrecks 
of  abbeys  and  castles,  fine  monuments  of  medieval  genius  ; 
they  were  not  to  be  replaced,  as  has  been  the  case  in  England, 
by  modern  structures  of  beauty  and  grandeur ;  other  storms  of 
destruction  were  to  break  on  Ireland  ;  but  that  of  the  sixteenth 
century  was  the  most  fatal  to  art.  The  most  terrible  feature  of 
the  time,  however,  was  the  fate  that  had  overtaken  the  great 
mass  of  the  people.  A  third  part  of  the  community,  it  is 
believed,  had  perished,  victims  of  the  sv;ord,  of  famine,  of 
fell  miseries,  to  which  few  parallels  can  be  found  in  history. 
Great  tracts  were  deserts  of  more  hideous  aspect  than  even  the 
battle-fields  of  the  Thirty  Years  War,  and  the  Palatinate  and  its 
cities,  when  given  to  the  flames.  Flocks  of  wolves  howled 
over  thousands  of  corpses,  left  unburied  amidst  broken  heaps 
of  villages ;  the  air  was  thick  with  flights  of  birds  of  prey  far 
and  near  feasting  on  human  carrion ;  Elizabeth  had  been  told, 
before  the  war  had  ended,  that  '•  she  reigned  in  Ireland  over 
ashes  and  dead  carcasses."  As  for  the  survivors  of  the  tragedy, 
"  out  of  every  corner  of  the  woods  and  glens  they  came  creeping 
forth  upon  their  hands,  for  their  legs  could  not  bear  them  : 
they  looked  Uke  anatomies  of  death ;  they  spoke  like  ghosts 
crying  out  of  their  graves."  In  the  agony  of  desperation  and 
want  many  a  mother  devoured  the  babe  she  had  slain  :  troops 
of  gibbering  idiots  gave  awful  proof  how  the  minds  of  men  had 
given  way  under  the  stress  of  horror  and  fear. 

The  spiritual  and  religious  state  of  Ireland  had  much  in 
common  with    this    material   ruin,    but    presented    ominous 

8-2 


Ii6  Ireland.  [Chap. 

features  especially  its  own.  We  have  already  seen  how  the 
Anglican  Church,  an  offset  of  the  old  Church  of  the  Pale,  but 
Protestant  and  opposed  to  Rome,  was  following  in  Ireland  the 
march  of  conquest,  and  was  being  forced  on  a  reluctant  people, 
and  how  the  old  Celtic  Church,  become  intensely  Papal,  was 
being  made  more  hostile  than  ever  to  English  rule  ;  we  have 
also  noticed  the  numerous  resulting  evils.  We  may  shortly 
glance  at  the  condition  of  thought  and  feeling,  and  of  piety  and 
morality,  that  was  being  developed  out  of  this  inauspicious 
order  of  things.  The  dignitaries  of  the  Anglican  Church 
remained  true  to  the  worst  hatreds  of  the  Church  of  the  Pale, 
and  regarded  the  Irishry  as  a  detested  race ;  and  as  their 
Church  was  being  extended  by  the  sword,  their  influence  for 
evil  was  widely  diffused.  They  had  become  tools  of  the  men 
at  the  Castle ;  their  animosities  were  quickened  by  the  zeal  of 
creed ;  they  persecuted  harshly  far  and  wide ;  an  Anglican 
Archbishop  had  watched  with  delight  the  torture  of  a  Prelate 
appointed  by  the  Pope.  Their  spiritual  authority,  however, 
was  next  to  nothing ;  heads  of  a  Church  that  had  no  hold  on 
the  people,  their  clergy  might  spread  over  many  districts,  and 
engross  most  of  the  good  things  of  the  world,  but  they 
preached,  for  the  most  part,  in  empty  churches,  though  attend- 
ance at  these  was  prescribed  by  law;  they  were  regarded  as 
mere  creatures  of  the  English  enemy,  talking  blasphemy  in  a 
foreign  tongue ;  their  voices  were  raised,  in  vain,  in  a  wilder- 
ness. As  always  happens,  too,  in  the  case  of  a  communion 
like  this,  religious  indifference,  sloth,  inertness,  were  the 
characteristics  of  its  scanty  flocks;  the  spirit  of  Protestantism 
had  as  yet  scarcely  entered  the  country,  if  that  of  intolerance 
was  abroad ;  and,  for  the  rest,  the  old  abuses  of  the  Church  of 
the  Pale,  simony,  profligacy,  waste,  the  decay  of  churches,  and 
wickedness  raised  to  high  places,  abounded  in  its  successor, 
with  little  change.  As  for  the  Church  of  the  Irishry — apart 
from  its  devotion  to  Rome — superstition  was  its  most  marked 


IV.]      Ireland  to  the  end  of  the  reign  of  Elizabeth.     117 

feature;  and  its  priesthood  as  yet  had  made  no  impression  on 
the  ignorance,  the  licentiousness,  and  the  odious  vices  ap- 
parently general  among  all  orders  of  men.  It  was,  of  course, 
a  bitter  enemy  of  the  Anglican  Church;  but  Ireland,  we 
repeat,  had  not  yet  had  experience  of  religious  hatreds  at 
their  worst. 

The  intellectual  life  of  Ireland  continued  to  be,  as  was 
indeed  natural,  deplorably  weak  throughout  this  period. 
Trinity  College  was  founded  in  1591 ;  it  was  to  become  a 
mother  of  eminent  men,  but  it  was  as  yet  only  in  its  first  infancy. 
A  few  books  were  published  in  Dublin,  but  they  were  mostly 
produced  by  English  pens ;  the  best  commentaries  on  Ireland, 
at  this  time,  were,  with  hardly  an  exception,  the  works  of 
Enghshmen.  Two  or  three  of  the  Irish  Chancellors  of  the  day 
were  learned  and  even  distinguished  men ;  the  influence  of  the 
Irish  Bar  was  growing,  as  English  law  spread  beyond  the  Pale ; 
the  Irish  House  of  Commons,  largely  increased  in  numbers, 
more  than  once  resisted  Tudor  stretches  of  power  with  the 
spirit  of  the  volunteers  of  1 781-2,  and  had,  doubtless,  mem- 
bers of  parts  and  capacity.  But  in  the  age  of  Shakespeare,  of 
Spenser,  of  Bacon,  when  the  intellect  of  England  flashed  out 
in  a  glory  of  Dramatic  Art,  of  Song,  of  Philosophy,  certainly 
more  splendid  than  has  since  been  seen,  no  great  writer  or 
thinker  appeared  in  Ireland  ;  her  literature  in  the  sixteenth 
century  is  the  dross  of  antiquity,  useful  only  as  a  witness  to  her 
unhappy  fortunes.  The  learned  researches  of  the  Brehon 
lawyers,  the  poetry  of  the  native  bards  and  minstrels,  were 
probably  less  abundant  in  these  troubled  years  than  they  had 
been  in  preceding  ages ;  the  destruction  of  the  Religious 
Houses,  the  wrongs  occasionally  done  to  the  Celtic  priest- 
hood, nay,  their  increased  activity  in  the  cause  of  Rome, 
contributed  probably  to  this  decline.  The  annalists  and 
chroniclers,  however,  seemied.  to  have  toiled  on ;  and  a  native 
literature  was  growing  up  of  an  historical  kind,  of  a  significant 


Il8  Ireland.  [Chap. 

character,  which  it  has  ever  since  retained.  It  was  marked  by 
a  note  of  unceasing  sorrow ;  by  fear  rather  than  hatred  of  the 
conquering  race ;  by  a  concentrated,  but  intensely  narrow  love 
of  country  \  above  all,  by  an  inability  to  see  that  the  many 
woes  of  Ireland  had  their  counterparts,  as  a  ride,  in  the  history 
of  the  time. 

Signs  of  the  old  and  long-standing  ills  of  Ireland  are  still 
manifest  in  this  period.  English  policy  fluctuates,  if  usually 
harsli ;  the  Government  at  the  Castle  varies  in  its  conduct  and 
aims;  the  "English  and  Anglo-Irish  interests"  repeatedly 
clash  ;  ruthless  conquest  is  carried  out  piecemeal ;  colonisation 
fails  as  in  the  Plantagenet  age.  The  peculiar  and  striking 
features,  however,  of  this  time  are  of  a  different  kind.  The 
march  of  conquest  in  Ireland  is  slow  and  uncertain  ;  it  is 
usually  sustained  by  inadequate  force ;  but  it  has  a  character 
of  atrocity  and  systematic  cruelty,  which  it  did  not  possess  in 
preceding  centuries.  Not  to  speak  of  the  contest  with  Shane 
O'Neill,  the  Desmond  rebellion  and  the  v/ar  with  Tyrone 
were,  we  have  said,  attended  by  events  of  horror,  of  barbarity, 
of  inhuman  destruction,  conspicuous,  even  in  an  age  of 
violence ;  Ireland  was  to  endure  perhaps  even  more  severe 
trials,  but  hardly  again  such  a  protracted  agony.  It  was  a 
special  characteristic  of  this  period,  too,  that  attempts  were 
niade  over  and  over  again  to  assimilate  Ireland  to  a  Tudor 
ideal,  to  force  on  the  Irishry  modes  of  life  and  thought,  alien 
to  them,  and  disliked  or  abhorred.  The  old  policy  of  keeping 
Saxon  and  Celt  apart,  of  preventing  the  fusion  of  the  two 
races,  was  abandoned,  as  English  rule  advanced ;  the  states- 
manlike policy  of  Henry  VIII — to  make  England  supreme  in 
Ireland,  but  to  give  the  Irish  a  share  in  government,  and  to 
respect  their  ancient  customs  and  usages — was  in  turn  replaced 
by  an  opposite  policy ;  Ireland  was  to  accept,  in  all  things, 
whatever  Englishmen  should  impose.  This  was  most  evident 
in  the  efforts  made  to  extend   the  domain   of  the   Anglican 


IV.]      Irelajid  to  the  end  of  the  reign  of  Elizabeth.     119 

Church;  but  it  was  apparent  in  all  the  relations  of  life; 
projects  to  extirpate  Brehons,  bards,  "poets,"  and  to  coerce 
the  Irishry  to  conform  to  Anglo-Saxon  ways,  were  in  high 
favour  at  the  seats  of  power  in  those  days.  The  hatred,  the 
loathing,  the  pitiless  contempt  felt  by  the  conquering  towards 
the  conquered  race  is,  also,  an  unhappy  feature  of  the  time; 
the  Englishry  regarded  the  Irishry  as  the  worst  kind  of 
savages'. 

We  may  glance  at  the  causes  of  this  evil  state  of  things ; 
for  it  left  unfortunate  results  behind.  Something  was  due  to 
the  nature  of  Irish  conquest — a  prolonged  strife  exasperating 
the  fiercest  passions — and  something  to  faults  in  the  English 
national  character,  stern,  and  devoid  of  sympathy  with  other 
races.  But  England,  throughout  this  period,  was  either  en- 
gaged in  watching  secret  but  most  dangerous  foes,  or  was  in  a 
death  struggle  with  Rome  and  Spain;  Ireland,  in  the  crisis  of 
the  sixteenth  century,  was  the  scene  of  conspiracies  against 
her  power,  recurring  over  and  over  again ;  and  though  the 
Irishry  received  Utile  aid  from  Philip  and  the  Popes  in  their 
frequent  risings,  we  cannot  feel  surprise  that  England  struck 
hard,  and  crushed  rebellion  with  an  unsparing  hand.  This 
was  the  main  cause  of  the  frightful  atrocity,  which  marked  the 
Irish  wars  of  those  days ;  and  if  we  recollect  that  England 
fought  for  existence,  the  result  becomes  a  subject  more  of 
regret  than  of  wonder.  As  for  the  efforts  of  later  Tudor 
statesmen  to  compel  Ireland  to  accept  an  alien  faith,  and  to 
conform  to  usages  prescribed  for  her,  this  was  in  accord  with 
the  spirit  of  the  age,  as  we  see  it  in  many  parts  of  Europe; 
indeed  something  of  the  same  kind  was  seen  in  the  system  of 
legislation  and  the  mode  of  government  adopted  in  England 
in    the    Tudor    period.      The   sentiments   unhappily   felt   by 

1  Shakespeare,  the  embodiment  of  English  genius  in  that  age,  and  it 
must  be  added  of  English  prejudice,  places  but  one  Irishman  on  the  stage, 
and  he  is  a  contemptible  fool. 


I20  Ii'elaiid.  [Chap. 

Englishmen  towards  Irishmen  are,  in  part,  explained  by  the 
passions  aroused  in  a  protracted  conflict ;  but  they  flowed, 
also,  from  another  source.  England  and  Ireland  were  lands 
as  far  asunder  as  the  poles,  in  wealth,  civilisation,  and  social 
progress ;  the  one  was  the  first  nation  in  Europe,  the  other  the 
most  backward  community ;  this  largely  accounts  for  the 
scornful  aversion  of  the  conquering  to  the  conquered  race. 

Impartial  history  properly  condemns  much  that  was  done 
in  Ireland  in  this  period.  Man,  however,  is  the  creature  of 
his  age ;  and  all  that  is  worst  in  Irish  affairs  had  its  parallel  in 
contemporary  events.  If  rebellion  in  Ireland  was  mercilessly 
crushed,  and  the  island  was  strewn  with  ashes  and  blood, 
Alva  did  the  very  same  things  in  the  Netherlands,  and  was 
more  pitiless  than  Sussex  and  Mountjoy.  If  we  blame  the 
perfidy  with  which  Shane  O'Neill  was  treated,  it  was  the  age 
of  the  odious  "serpent  of  Florence,"  of  the  massacre  of  St 
Bartholomew,  of  the  murder  of  Coligny.  We  regret  attempts 
to  force  the  Anglican  Church  on  the  Irishry ;  but  these  were  as 
nothing  to  what  was  done  to  stamp  out  heresy  in  Spain  and  in 
Italy,  and  to  place  whole  orders  of  men  under  the  yoke  of 
Rome.  The  slaughter  at  the  fort  of  Smerwick  was  a  crime ; 
but  it  was  a  trifle  compared  to  many  a  deed  of  blood,  of  which 
France  was  the  scene  in  the  civil  wars  of  the  time.  The 
sixteenth  century,  in  fact,  was  an  age  of  violence,  when 
Christendom  was  torn  in  pieces  in  a  deadly  strife ;  and  Ireland 
had  but  a  share  in  the  conflict.  Let  it  be  said,  too,  that 
Elizabeth  and  English  statesmen  were  often  ignorant  of  what 
was  being  done  in  their  name  in  Ireland ;  it  should  be  added 
that  the  weakness,  the  want  of  concert,  the  divisions  of  Irish 
nobles  and  chiefs,  and  the  still  backward  state  of  almost  the 
whole  community,  contributed  to  the  unhappy  fate  of  their 
country. 

The  prospect  for  Ireland  was  not  wholly  dark  at  the  close 
of  the  sixteenth  century.     Civilisation  had  established  itself  in 


IV.]     Ireland  to  the  end  of  the  reign  of  Elizabeth.      T2I 

the  Pale ;  this  region,  indeed,  had  almost  lost  the  name,  as  the 
limits  of  English  power  advanced ;  nearly  the  whole  island  had 
been  made  shireland.  There  was  a  semblance  at  least  of 
constitutional  government,  as  the  Irish  Parliament  advanced 
in  influence ;  the  domain  of  order  and  law  had  been  largely 
increased.  The  land  had  been  cruelly  wasted  by  the  sword ; 
but  the  sword  had  hewn  its  way  through  the  dense  jungle  of 
half-barbarous  feudal  and  Celtic  rule,  which  had  been  a 
barrier  for  ages  to  every  kind  of  progress ;  it  might  yet 
inaugurate  a  better  order  of  things.  The  conflict,  which  had 
been  so  prolonged  and  grievous,  was  not  yet  wholly  one  of 
race  and  religion,  although  tending  in  both  directions ;  the 
wounds  it  had  inflicted  might  perhaps  have  been  healed. 
Ireland,  if  we  except  a  part  of  Ulster,  was  completely  in  the 
hands  of  the  conquerors ;  the  dark  course  of  her  fortunes 
might  even  now  have  been  turned.  The  policy  of  Henry  VIII 
had  become  impossible ;  but  if  Ireland,  at  this  juncture,  had 
been  placed  under  an  enlightened  despotism,  like  that  of 
India,  that  respected  native  usage  and  law  while  it  maintained 
the  rule  of  civilised  power,  her  future  history  might  have  been 
very  different.  She  was  in  a  state  not  unlike  that  of  France 
after  the  peace  of  Vervins,  exhausted  by  war,  torn  by  angry 
passions.  But  she  was  to  find  no  Henry  IV  and  Sully ;  she 
was  to  proceed  along  a  path  thickly  strown  with  disasters  and 
sorrows. 


CHAPTER   V. 

FROM    THE   DEATH   OF    ELIZABETH    TO   THE 

RESTORATION. 

An  amnesty  proclaimed  at  the  accession  of  James  I.  Tyrone  is  receiveil 
at  Court,  with  his  kinsman  O'Donnell,  made  Earl  of  Tyrconnell. 
Religious  troubles  easily  put  down  by  Mountjoy.  Abolition  of  the 
Brehon  Law  and  Celtic  usages,  in  all  parts  of  Ireland.  Substitution  of 
English  lav/  and  the  English  system  of  land  tenure.  Consequences 
of  this  revolution.  The  flight  of  Tyrone  and  Tyrconnell,  and  of  other 
Irish  chiefs.  Confiscation  of  their  territories.  Six  counties  of 
Ulster  at  the  disposition  of  the  Crown.  The  Plantation  of  Ulster. 
Peculiarities  and  characteristics  of  the  scheme.  The  effects  of  this 
colonisation  perhaps  exaggerated.  The  prosperity  of  Ulster,  however, 
begins  from  this  time.  Resentment  of  the  Irishry  of  Ulster.  Progress 
of  confiscation  in  time  of  peace.  The  beginning  of  the  era  of 
Protestant  ascendency  in  Ireland,  and  of  Catholic  subjection.  Decline 
of  the  independence  of  the  Irish  Parliament,  and  the  causes  of  this. 
Deceptive  tranquillity  and  prosperity  of  Ireland  after  the  death  of 
James.  The  state  of  the  island  really  dangerous.  The  reign  of 
Charles  I.  The  Viceroyalty  of  Strafford.  His  tyranny;  the  evils  it 
produced,  and  the  good  it  accomplished.  The  great  Ulster  rising  of 
1641.  There  was  no  general  premeditated  massacre.  Spread  of  the 
insurrection.  Defection  of  the  old  Catholic  Englishry.  Civil  war  in 
Ireland.  The  Catholic  confederation  of  Kilkenny.  Extreme  signifi- 
cance of  this  assembly.  Division  of  parties  in  it,  and  the  results. 
The  Cessation  of  1643.  Tortuous  policy  of  the  King.  Prolonged 
negotiations.  The  Glamorgan  Treaty.  The  Peace  of  1646.  It 
concedes  hardly  anything  to  the  Confederates,  and  especially  to  the 
Celtic  Irishry.     Indignation   of  the   extreme  parties.     Rinuccini  and 


Ch.  v.]   From  the  death  of  Elizabeth  to  the  Restoration.    123 

Owen  Roe  O'Neill.  The  Battle  of  Benburb.  Results  of  O'Neill's 
victory.  Danger  of  Dublin.  Ormond  resigns  his  office  to  representa- 
tives of  the  Long  Parliament,  and  leaves  Ireland.  Jones  defeats 
Preston.  Inchiquin  defeats  Taaffe.  The  Confederates  treat  again  for 
peace.  The  Peace  of  1648.  Ormond  returns  to  Ireland.  The 
Royalists  and  Confederates  unite  after  the  death  of  the  King.  De- 
parture of  Rinuccini  from  Ireland.  O'Neill  stands  aloof.  Battle  near 
Dublin  and  defeat  of  Ormond.  Death  of  O'Neill.  He  had  turned  to 
Ormond  when  it  was  too  late.  Cromwell  lands  in  Ireland.  Drogheda 
and  Wexford.  The  Croniwellian  conquest  of  Ireland.  The  settle- 
ment of  the  land.  Government  of  Cromwell.  The  beginnings  of  the 
Irish  Union.     The  Restoration.     Reflections. 

The  reign  of  James  I,  if  not  an  eventful,  is  a  very  im- 
portant period  in  Irish  history.  It  was  inaugurated  by 
measures,  intended,  no  doubt,  to  bind  up,  in  some  degree,  the 
deep  wounds  of  the  people.  An  amnesty  was  proclaimed  for 
all  that  had  been  done  in  the  war;  a  veil  of  oblivion  was 
thrown  over  the  past;  the  brother  of  O'Donnell,  the  chief 
lately  in  arms,  was  made  a  peer,  as  Earl  of  Tyrconnell ;  and 
Tyrone  and  the  new  Earl  were  received  in  state  at  Court. 
Parts  of  the  country  were  stirred,  ere  long,  by  religious 
troubles;  but  these  were  of  no  present  interest;  they  were 
significant,  at  most,  of  dangers  yet  to  come.  The  Catholic 
world  seems  to  have  beheved  that  James  would  reverse  the 
policy  of  his  predecessor;  and  when  this  expectation  had 
proved  almost  vain,  the  priesthood  of  the  Irish  Catholic 
Church,  long  devoted  followers  of  the  Holy  See,  succeeded  in 
provoking  a  few  angry  risings.  The  clergy  of  the  Anglican 
Church  were  driven  from  their  homes,  in  two  or  three  of  the 
principal  towns  of  Munster;  the  Mass,  nominally  at  least 
proscribed  by  law,  was  celebrated  with  great  pomp  in  many 
places,  and  mutterings  of  rebellion  were  even  heard.  Mountjoy, 
however — he  had  been  made  Lord  Lieutenant — easily  put 
down  a  petty  sacerdotal  movement  which  had  scarcely  any 
general  support ;  Ireland,  in  fact,  had  been  so  exhausted  by 


124  Ireland.  [Chap. 

war  that  the  community,  as  a  whole,  was  quiescent.  There 
was  no  Irish  Gunpowder  Plot ;  and  when,  as  the  result  of  that 
unhappy  crime,  many  Catholic  priests  were  expelled  from 
Ireland,  there  was  no  murmur  of  open  discontent. 

By  this  time  the  whole  island  had  been  made  shireland; 
the  king's  writ  was  supposed   to  run  everywhere;    the  king's 
judges  went  regular  circuits ;  the  machinery  at  least  of  English 
law  had  been  set  up  in  the  four  Irish  provinces.     But  that  law 
was  largely  encountered  and  checked  by  the  medley  of  feudal 
and  Celtic  law  and  usage,  which  still  prevailed  in  great  parts  of 
the  country ;    it  was  still,  to  a  considerable  extent,   a  dead 
letter.      Within   the  limits    of  the  old   Pale  it  probably  was 
completely  supreme ;  it  determined  the  rights  of  all  classes  of 
men ;   its   odious  distinctions  between  the  Englishry  and  the 
Irishry  had  become  obsolete,  if  not  yet  abolished  by  any  act  of 
the  state.     Beyond,  in  the  Anglo-Norman  lands,  its  influence 
had  been  immensely  extended ;  it  had  effaced  the  jurisdiction 
of  the  great  feudal  nobles,  as  these  had  yielded  to  the  advance 
of  conquest ;  it  had  replaced  the  will  of  Butler  and  Geraldine 
in  their  vast  palatinates.     But  even  in  this  region  it  was  crossed 
and   thwarted    by   Anglo-Norman   and    Celtic    customs ;    the 
Brehon  lawyers  had  still  power;  the  laws  they  administered  had 
wide  influence;  and  the  English  system  of  tenure  was  in  direct 
conflict  with  the  ancient  Celtic  organisation  of  the  land,  which, 
in  many  districts,  had  not  disappeared.     In  the  Celtic  Land, 
as    we    may    still   call    it,    subdued    and   ravaged   as    it   had 
been,  English   law  was   opposed  by  these  and  other  hostile 
elements ;    the  primitive  modes  of  Tanist  succession  and  of 
Gavelkind  were  in  common  use;  indeed  the  claim  of  a  tribe 
to  elect  its  chiefs  had,  as  we  have  seen,  led  to  two  bloody  wars. 
But  in  this,  and  in  other  large  parts  of  Ireland,  what  was  most 
in  antagonism  to  English  law,  was  the  archaic  land-system  of 
the   Irish  Celts,  still   deeply  and  widely  rooted  in   the   soil. 
This  system,  as  we  have  said,  had  been  encroached  on,  and 


v.]      From  the  death  of  Elizabeth  to  the  Restoration,     125 

weakened  by  the  Irish  chiefs  for  ages ;  and  the  practice,  which 
had  become  frequent,  of  surrendering  lands  to  a  great  extent, 
to  be  regranted  and  held  by  English  tenure,  had  blotted  it  out 
in  many  counties.  But  the  old  relations  springing  from  the 
land,  and  powerfully  affecting  whole  orders  of  men,  remained 
in  full  force,  in  an  immense  territory;  and  milHons  of  acres 
were  still  parcelled  out  between  owners  possessing  the  rights  of 
chiefs,  and  their  free  tenants  and  vassal  dependents,  each  class 
holding  by  immemorial  custom. 

The  opportunity  was  now  taken  to  extend  English  law  to 
every  part  of  Ireland,  to  annihilate  the  old  Celtic  laws  and 
usages,  and  consequently  to  destroy  the  Celtic  land-system, 
the  mould  of  society  in  many  and  great  districts.  This  was 
part  of  the  policy  of  forcing  the  conquered  to  adopt  the 
institutions  of  the  conquering  race,  which  had  been  in  progress 
for  a  series  of  years ;  but  Tudor  lawyers,  we  have  seen,  had  a 
peculiar  aversion  to  almost  everything  savouring  of  Irish  law, 
the  result  partly,  at  least,  of  their  ignorance,  if  not  without 
foundation  in  reason.  English  law  was  pronounced  the  sole 
law  of  the  land ;  the  Brehon  Laws  were  condemned  as  evil 
customs;  Tanistry  and  Gavelkind  were  declared  illegal; 
English  modes  of  succession  were  made  to  prevail  everywhere ; 
the  English  methods  of  holding  land  were  substituted  uni- 
versally for  the  ancient  Irish  methods;  and  surrenders  and 
regrants  of  land  were  very  generally  made.  This  revolution, 
searching  and  immense,  was  doubtless  attended  with  some 
good  results ;  Tanistry  and  Gavelkind  had  caused  real  evils, 
and  were  hardly  compatible  with  social  progress;  the  law  of  the 
Eric-fine  had  done  mischief;  the  primitive  system  of  Irish  land 
tenure  seemed  as  far  behind  the  age  as  the  feudal  system,  to 
which,  loose  and  ill-defined  as  it  was,  it  bore,  we  have  said, 
a  kind  of  resemblance.  But  a  sudden  change  affecting  the 
relations  of  life,  especially  as  it  was  thrust  on  a  reluctant 
people,  provoked,  far  and  wide,  discontent  and  alarm.     The 


1 26  Ireland,  [Chap. 

Brehon  judges  were  regretted  as  martyrs ;  the  effort  to  destroy 
their  cherished  customs  was  resented  by  the  Irishry  as  a  cruel 
injury ;  the  new  law  of  the  alien  shocked  their  deepest  sym- 
pathies. This  was  especially  the  case  in  all  that  was  connected 
with  the  land ;  the  conversion  of  Irish  into  English  tenures 
unquestionably  annihilated  rights  wholesale ;  over  large  areas, 
and  in  many  thousand  instances,  the  free  Ceile,  the  Saer 
stock  and  the  Daer  stock  tenants,  in  different  degrees  joint 
owners  of  the  soil,  sank  into  the  position  of  mere  tenants  at 
will,  in  fact,  nearly  that  of  the  degraded  Fuidhirs.  It  is  true 
that  the  privileges  of  these  classes  seem  to  have  been  considered 
in  some  cases,  where  lands  were  surrendered  and  granted  again  ; 
but  this  was  not  of  common  occurrence.  As  a  rule,  the  claims 
of  the  members  of  the  tribes,  clans,  and  septs,  to  the  lands 
which  they  had  held  for  ages  were  trampled  under  foot ;  and  this 
in  considerable  parts  of  Ireland.  The  consequences  were  not 
difficult  to  perceive  ;  it  was  as  if  the  Village  Community  and  the 
Joint  Family  were  effaced  by  a  freak  of  mere  power  in  India. 

The  abolition  of  Celtic  usage  and  law  was  followed  by  a 
confiscation  of  immense  proportions.  Tyrone  and  his  kinsman 
Tyrconnell  suddenly  fled  from  Ireland ;  they  were  accompanied 
by  several  inferior  chiefs ;  the  fugitives  were  proscribed  and 
attainted ;  and  the  vast  territories,  which  they  still  ruled,  were 
forfeited.  It  is  useless  to  enquire  whether  they  had  plotted 
treason — the  charge  usually  made  on  occasions  of  the  kind — 
or  whether  they  knew  they  were  doomed  beforehand;  but  Tyrone 
assuredly  was  not  a  man  precipitately  and  unwisely  to  rush 
into  danger.  The  suzerainty  of  the  exiles  extended  over  the 
six  Ulster  counties  of  Armagh,  Cavan,  Monaghan,  Fermanagh, 
Tyrone,  and  Donegal ;  and  it  appears  certain  that  this  large 
tract,  comprising  more  than  three  millions  of  acres,  was  de- 
clared to  be  at  the  disposition  of  the  Crown.  An  effort  was 
now  made  to  pour  into  this  region  a  great  stream  of  English 
and  Scotch  colonists,  and  to  make  it  the  seat  of  a  strong  settle- 


v.]      From  the  death  of  Elizabeth  to  the  Restoration.     127 

inent  attached  by  blood  and  faith  to  the  British  name.  The 
genius  of  Bacon  and  the  experience  of  Davies  presided  over 
this  new  "Plantation";  precautions  were  taken  to  avoid  the 
failures  of  previous  attempts  at  colonisation  of  the  kind.  The 
lands  chosen  for  the  settlement  seem  to  have  been  not  more 
than  half-a-million  or  six  hundred  thousand  acres';  but  these 
we  know  comprised  the  best  lands ;  the  residue,  then  a  tract 
of  moor,  woodland,  and  waste,  was  probably  abandoned  to  the 
native  race.  In  the  arrangement  and  distribution  of  the  lands 
to  be  colonised  the  example  of  the  Desmond  forfeitures  was, 
in  part,  followed,  but  large  deviations  also  were  made  from  it. 
Parts  of  the  lands  were  granted  to  "undertakers"  of  English 
and  Scottish  origin,  and  parts  to  officers  who  had  served  in  the 
late  war ;  and  care  was  taken,  as  before,  that  the  grants  should 
be  small,  in  fact  much  smaller  than  had  been  the  case  in 
Munster.  But  very  stringent  conditions  were  imposed  to  pre- 
vent the  evils  which  had  occurred  previously;  points  of  vantage 
were  to  be  strongly  occupied;  the  settlers  were  to  build  fortified 
dwellings,  and,  as  a  rule,  to  be  always  resident;  their  lands 
were  to  be  thickly  peopled  by  men  of  their  own  blood;  a 
colony,  really  of  a  military  type,  was  thus  to  be  established  in 
the  midst  of  the  Irishry,  and  to  be  kept  if  possible  free  from 
contact  with  them.  In  other,  and  very  important  respects,  the 
Desmond  precedent  was  completely  set  at  nought.  A  con- 
siderable part  of  the  lands  to  be  planted  was  allotted  to  the 
Irishry  to  be  held,  as  owners  and  tenants,  by  English  tenure ; 
they  were  thus  to  be  indemnified  for  what  they  had  lost,  and 
to  be  isolated  as  a  separate  people.  The  Anglican  Church, 
too,  obtained  large  grants ;  and  a  great  tract  in  the  county  of 


^  For  the  very  difficult  question  of  the  extent  of  the  original  forfeitures, 
and  of  the  lands  actually  settled,  see,  and  compare,  Hill,  Plantation  of 
Ulster,  Introduction,  4,  and  Pynnar's  Survey,  Ibid.  445,   589.    Leland,  il. 
429  seqq.     Reid's  Presbytcnan  Church,  1.  86.     Hallam,  iii.  504. 


128  Irela7id.  [Chap. 

Derry  was  handed  over  to  London  merchants  free  from  the 
conditions  before  referred  to. 

The  prosperity  which  a  part  of  Ulster  has  enjoyed  has 
been  ascribed  by  a  series  of  writers  to  this  "Plantation";  but 
there  is  much  exaggeration  in  the  assertion.  Many  families, 
indeed,  of  English  and  Scottish  descent — especially  of  Scottish 
—  established  themselves  in  the  tracts  which  had  been  assigned 
to  them  ;  and  the  colony  was  from  the  first  more  thriving  than 
any  preceding  colonies  of  the  kind.  But,  as  had  happened 
in  Munster  before,  the  conditions  of  the  settlement  were  ill 
observed ;  non-residence  was  common,  lands  were  not  occu- 
pied by  a  sufficient  number  of  the  immigrating  race  ;  the  Irishry 
largely  intermingled  with  it,  spite  of  every  effort  to  keep  them 
apart.  Derry,  too,  became  especially  a  land  of  absentees ;  of 
the  six  counties  in  which  the  Plantation  was  made,  the  children 
of  the  soil  remained  the  mass  of  the  population  in  three.  Down 
and  Antrim  had  been  colonised  before,  without  interference  on 
the  part  of  the  state,  by  successive  inroads  of  Scottish  settlers  ; 
these  counties  are,  by  many  degrees,  the  most  prosperous  and 
the  richest  in  Ulster,  and  those  that  show  the  greatest  preponder- 
ance of  Teutonic  blood.  It  seems  probable  that  the  progress 
of  Ulster,  which  certainly  dates  from  the  seventeenth  century, 
was  rather  due  to  the  colonising  genius  of  the  Scotch  and  to  a 
continual  influx  of  men  of  their  race  than  to  the  Plantation, 
considered  by  itself;  this,  in  many  respects,  was  hardly  success- 
ful. Still  the  advance  which  Ulster  has  made  in  the  course  of 
time  coincided  with  that  of  the  settlement  of  the  reign  of  James  ; 
and  this  was,  doubtless,  a  potent  element  in  it.  On  the  other 
hand  the  Plantation  was,  beyond  dispute,  a  cause  of  many  and 
dangerous  evils.  In  the  allotment  of  the  forfeited  lands,  the 
rights  of  the  native  race  were  destroyed  or  neglected ;  chiefs 
of  famiUes  held  in  reverence  for  ages  were  rudely  de- 
spoiled ;  the  tribal  system  of  tenure  was  broken  up ;  whole 
classes  of  occupiers  of  the  soil  were  injured.     To  the  feelings 


v.]      From  the  death  of  Elizabeth  to  the  Restoration.     129 

engendered  by  this  violent  change  we  must  mainly  attribute 
another  great  rising,  attended  with  most  unhappy  results,  and 
fraught,  for  a  time,  with  grave  peril  to  the  state. 

Ireland  was  now  completely  in  the  conqueror's  hands  ;  as 
far  as  the  sword  and  law  could  effect  it,  the  type  of  Celtic 
society  had  been  nearly  effaced.  There  was  still  an  opportunity 
to  make  order  and  prosperity  grow  up  under  a  good  govern- 
ment, like  that,  as  we  have  said,  of  India  at  this  day;  but  the 
course  of  events  was  unhappily  different.  The  country,  as  had 
been  the  case  for  years,  was  an  object  for  the  English  adven- 
turer ;  the  men  at  the  Castle  had,  for  a  long  time,  been  eager 
to  gorge  themselves  in  forfeitures ;  the  necessities  of  the  king 
were  great.  Under  the  operation  of  these  causes,  confiscation 
went  on  at  a  prodigious  rate ;  whole  tracts  were  wrested  from 
their  possessors  by  atrocious  wrong.  In  five  or  six  of  the 
central  counties  thousands  of  acres  were  seized  and  transferred; 
a  large  part  of  Wicklow  was  torn  from  the  mountaineers,  for 
generations  the  enemies  of  the  Pale ;  the  same  process  took 
place  in  other  counties.  The  means  adopted  to  produce  these 
results  were  an  odious  combination  of  tyranny  and  fraud. 
Obsolete  claims  to  lands  were  set  up  by  descendants  of  colon- 
ists of  Plantagenet  times,  as  had  been  done  by  Sir  Peter  Carew; 
hundreds  of  ancient  Royal  grants  were  pronounced  invalid; 
the  right  of  the  Crown  to  large  domains  was  asserted  with 
success ;  legal  ingenuity  and  chicane  were  taxed  to  pick  out 
flaws  in  titles.  The  work  of  rapine  was  assisted  by  a  brood  of 
harpies,  known  by  the  evil  name  of  "  discoverers,"  by  servile 
judges,  by  terrified  juries;  under  these  influences  it  made  rapid 
progress.  At  last  an  attempt  was  made,  on  a  mere  technical 
plea,  to  confiscate  the  great  district  of  Connaught,  which  had 
been  the  subject  of  Sir  John  Perrott's  settlement;  but  this  claim 
was  bought  off  for  the  present ;  James  probably  was  afraid  to 
maintain  it.  But  "  the  ravage  of  war,"  in  the  words  of  Burke, 
was   carried    on   "in    peace,"  over  a  large  part  of  Ireland; 

M.  I.  o 


1 30  Ireland.  [Chap. 

thousands  of  the  Irishry  and  some  of  the  old  Englishry  felt 
that  their  lands  were  marked  down  as  a  prey;  insecurity  and 
alarm  prevailed  far  and  wide. 

Events,  meanwhile,  had  been  tending  to  increase  and 
widen  the  division  of  faith  in  the  Irish  community,  and  to 
make  the  resulting  evils  more  general  and  intense.  The 
Anglican  Church  had,  by  this  time,  been  established  in  every 
part  of  the  island ;  it  had  taken  possession  of  all  that  belonged 
to  the  Church  of  the  Pale  and  the  ancient  Celtic  Church ; 
it  was,  in  fact,  the  only  ecclesiastical  body  recognised  by  the 
law.  Its  characteristics  had  not  changed,  or  had  changed 
only,  perhaps,  for  the  worse;  it  remained  an  instrument 
of  the  rule  of  the  Castle ;  it  persecuted  in  the  midst  of  a 
conquered  people.  If  it  had  begun  to  produce  a  few  eminent 
men,  it  was  as  full  as  before  of  the  old  and  bad  abuses ;  as  a 
spiritual  agency  it  had  made  no  progress ;  and  it  was  more 
hostile  than  ever  to  Rome  and  to  the  great  mass  of  Irishmen 
— more  Catholic  than  they  had  been  at  any  time — for  it 
had  been  affected  by  the  religious  movement  of  England,  and 
many  of  its  clergy  were  extreme  Puritans.  At  the  same 
time,  the  power  of  the  Anglican  Church  had,  in  another  way, 
been  immensely  extended.  It  had  been  the  Church  only  of  a 
feeble  colony ;  it  was  now  the  Church  of  a  great  dominant 
class,  spreading  as  conquerors  over  many  parts  of  the  country ; 
and  this  class,  settled  amidst  the  Irishry,  was  strongly  and 
aggressively  Protestant,  upheld  Protestantism  as  a  sign  of 
supremacy,  and  regarded  with  peculiar  aversion  and  contempt 
Catholicism  and  the  subjugated  Catholic  Celts,  nay  even  the 
old  Englishry,  nearly  all  Catholics.  The  era  of  Protestant 
ascendency,  and  all  that  the  word  implies,  had,  in  fact,  already 
begun  in  Ireland ;  a  dominant  Church  was  supported  by  a 
dominant  caste,  and  both  laid  a  yoke  on  the  neck  of  five-sixths 
of  the  people.  The  inevitable  result  was  to  quicken  religious  dis- 
cords, and  to  make  them  far  more  bitter  than  they  had  ever  been. 


v.]      From  the  death  of  Elizabeth  to  the  Restoration.     1 3 1 

The  same  consequences  had  been  produced  by  another  and 
different  series  of  causes.  The  CathoHc  Church  of  Ireland 
had  become  every  year  more  a  sateUite  of  Rome ;  its  clergy — 
hundreds  of  whom  were  emissaries  of  the  Papal  Court — were 
probably  the  most  Roman  in  Europe;  and,  persecuted  as  it 
had  been  and  despoiled,  it  hated  the  Anglican  Church,  the 
Irish  Protestant  name,  nay  Protestant  England,  with  unceasing 
hatred.  The  influence  of  its  priesthood  too  had  greatly 
increased,  for,  as  we  have  said,  this  had  rapidly  grown,  as  the 
power  of  the  Irish  chiefs  had  declined;  and  if  its  moral 
authority,  as  a  Christian  order  of  men,  was  not  yet  what  it  was 
to  become,  it  was  the  spiritual  leader,  we  must  not  forget, 
of  the  Catholic  Englishry,  and  of  the  Irish  Celts,  that  is  of  the 
immense  majority  of  the  Irish  people.  It  had  thus  become  a 
representative,  in  a  certain  sense,  of  the  Irish  Catholic  com- 
munity as  a  whole;  it  naturally  inspired  this  with  its  own 
sentiments;  it  exasperated  the  feelings  of  anger  and  fear 
already  quickened  by  conquest  and  other  wrongs.  Simul- 
taneously with  this,  the  Irish  Cathohcs  had  been  subjected  to 
different  kinds  of  grievances,  on  the  ground  of  their  religion 
only.  The  sectarian  tests  of  the  reign  of  Elizabeth  had  been 
almost  idle  and  empty  menaces ;  the  oath  of  supremacy  had 
been  scarcely  ever  tendered ;  attendance  at  Protestant  worship 
had  not  been  enforced.  All  this  had,  by  degrees,  been 
changed,  as  the  march  of  conquest  had  advanced  in  Ireland 
and  Irish  Protestantism  had  acquired  more  strength ;  Catholic 
*'  recusants,"  as  they  were  now  called,  were,  in  many  instances, 
kept  out  of  the  service  of  the  state,  debarred  from  holding 
offices  and  from  the  practice  of  the  law,  nay  fined  and  made 
liable  to  other  penalties,  because  they  would  not  accept  the 
tests  now  often  imposed  on  them.  This  system  of  persecu- 
tion, doubtless,  was  rather  teasing  than  cruel;  but  the  era  of 
Catholic  subjection  had,  also,  opened  for  Ireland;  and  from 
this  and  the  other  causes  referred  to,  religious  animosities  had 
been  greatly  augmented. 


132  Ireland.  [Chap. 

The  Government  at  the  Castle  had  undergone,  at  the  same 
time,  a  well  marked  change.  It  had  long  been  composed 
wholly  of  the  "  English  interest " ;  but  soldiers  were  now 
replaced,  for  the  most  part,  by  Anglican  Churchnien  and 
men  of  English  law;  a  Government  of  this  type  was  naturally 
harsh  to  the  subject  races  over  which  it  ruled.  It  was  not  a 
general  or  equal  despotism,  but  rather  a  bureaucracy,  exclusive 
and  severe;  it  weighed  heavily  on  the  Catholic  Celt,  and  even 
on  the  Englishry  of  the  old  faith ;  its  principal  work  was  to 
look  out  for  forfeitures,  which  it  often  enforced  by  the  very 
worst  means.  Another  institution  of  Ireland,  too,  which  had 
given  signs  of  promise,  had  been  transformed.  The  Irish 
Parliament,  we  have  seen,  had  grown  out  of  the  Conventions 
of  the  Pale,  had  gradually  acquired  no  little  influence,  and  had 
shown,  more  than  once,  in  the  sixteenth  century,  a  sentiment 
of  independence,  even  a  love  of  liberty.  These  hopeful  germs 
had  been  destroyed :  in  spite  of  a  protest  made  by  the 
Baronage  of  the  Pale,  the  class  most  worthy  of  honour,  perhaps, 
in  the  country,  James,  with  a  stroke  of  the  pen,  created  forty 
boroughs  out  of  "beggarly  hamlets,"  of  "no  account";  and 
the  Irish  House  of  Commons  was  unfairly  packed  by  nominees 
of  the  Crown  and  members  of  the  ruling  English  colonies, 
who  had  been  established  in  power  in  the  land.  The  single 
Irish  Parliament  of  this  reign  enacted  some  good  and  useful 
laws,  especially  an  act  for  effacing  old  distinctions  of  race,  so 
far  as  legislation  could  effect  this  object.  But  it  was  chiefly 
remarkable  for  a  fierce  quarrel  between  the  English  and 
Protestant  party,  and  the  Catholic  "recusants"  of  either  race; 
these  were  overborne,  but  still  formed  a  minority  which  could 
make  itself  felt.  The  Irish  Parliament  had  thus  become 
essentially  an  instrument  of  English  power  and  of  the  dominant 
Anglo-Protestant  interest,  which  always  had  a  majority  in  it ; 
it  did  not,  in  any  true  sense,  represent  the  country;  it  lost  its 
old  independent  spirit ;  it  was,  as  a  rule,  submissive  and  servile, 
though  occasionally  affected  by  gusts  of  passion.     Without  the 


v.]      Fro}n  the  deatJi  of  Elizabeth  to  tJie  Restoration.     133 

support  of  a  strong  community,  of  anything  even  resembling  a 
section  of  public  opinion,  it  had  little  in  common  with  the 
great  Houses  of  Westminster. 

Ireland,  however,  at  the  death  of  James  I,  was  apparently 
tranquil,  nay  in  a  state  of  progress.  Peace  had  repaired  some 
of  the  ravages  of  war ;  the  introduction  of  a  vigorous  race  of 
settlers  had  improved  husbandry  and  the  face  of  the  country ; 
signs  of  material  prosperity  began  to  be  seen.  The  mass  of 
the  people,  too,  seemed  quiescent;  and  English  statesmen, 
with  the  optimistic  fancies  which  have  often  deluded  them  in 
the  case  of  Ireland,  announced  that  "  the  strings  of  the  Irish 
harp  were  in  tune,"  and  that  the  Irish  were  orderly,  even 
contented.  Yet  elements  of  ill-will,  of  passion,  of  strife  were 
gathering  beneath  the  surface  of  things,  more  dangerous  per- 
haps than  at  any  previous  time.  The  Irishry  fiercely  resented 
the  fall  of  their  chiefs,  the  extinction  of  their  customs,  the 
annihilation  of  their  rights,  and  especially  the  destruction  of 
the  tribal  land-system ;  the  Continent  had  received  despoiled 
Irish  exiles,  trained  to  war,  and  thirsting  for  revenge  for  wrong; 
the  reiterated  process  of  confiscation  had  aroused  anger  and 
terror.  The  domination,  too,  of  the  Anglican  Church,  the 
vexatious  persecution  which  it  promoted,  above  all,  the 
extension  over  great  parts  of  the  country  of  numbers  of 
settlers,  seated  on  the  land,  as  a  caste  alien  in  race  and 
faith  from  the  children  of  the  soil,  had  provoked  deepseated 
and  bitter  discontent ;  their  feelings  were  quickened  by  the 
Catholic  priesthood,  more  powerful  than  it  had  ever  been, 
and  were  shared  by  many  of  the  old  Englishry.  The  Govern- 
ment, besides,  was  a  bad  Government,  harsh,  sectarian,  narrow, 
often  iniquitous;  it  was  trying  to  wrest  everything  to  submission 
to  the  rule  of  the  Castle,  repeatedly  abused  for  the  very  worst 
purposes.  As  the  general  result,  the  divisions  of  race  and 
faith,  unhappily  the  cardinal  fact  of  Irish  History,  were  never 
before  so  profound  and  menacing.     The  separation  between 


134  Ireland.  [Chap. 

the  Englishry  in  the  Middle  Age,  and  the  aboriginal  Celts,  in 
every  part  of  Ireland,  was  as  nothing  compared  to  the  deep 
distinction  between  the  English  and  Scotch  settlers  and  the 
Irishry  of  the  existing  time;  the  feud  between  the  Norman 
Church  of  the  Pale  and  the  ancient  Church  of  the  Celts  was  a 
trifle  compared  to  the  hostility,  in  Ireland,  of  Anglicanism  and 
Rome ;  and  all  the  evils  of  disunion  had  thus  increased  and 
multiplied.  It  should  be  observed,  too,  that  the  lines  between 
races  and  faiths,  except  in  the  case  of  the  old  Englishry,  nearly 
all  Catholics,  were  coincident ;  the  Colonists  were  Protestants, 
the  Celtic-Irish  Catholic ;  and  the  fact  would  necessarily 
aggravate  any  dangers  at  hand.  And  it  might  well  be,  in  the 
actual  state  of  Europe,  when  the  great  Catholic  reaction 
seemed  certain  of  success,  in  the  first  triumphs  of  the  Thirty 
Years  War,  and  when  Protestantism  was  being  forced  back  in 
Germany  and  in  England,  that,  in  Ireland,  the  division  of 
creed  would  be  attended  with  the  most  fatal  results. 

The  first  years  of  the  reign  of  Charles  I  are  remarkable 
only,  as  respects  Ireland,  for  vacillation  in  the  rule  of  the 
Castle,  for  the  continuance  of  its  bad  modes  of  government, 
and  for  the  utter  disregard  which  seems  to  have  been  shown  to 
the  stand  made  against  the  King  in  the  English  Parliament. 
The  duplicity  however,  which  was  the  most  marked  feature  of 
the  conduct  of  Charles  in  Irish  affairs,  was  soon  exhibited  by 
a  striking  example.  The  King  made  a  solemn  promise  in 
reply  to  a  remonstrance  from  Ireland  addressed  to  him,  that 
the  confiscations  in  Connaught  should  not  proceed,  on  the 
technical  pretence  which  had  been  made  for  them ;  he  added 
that  a  prescription  of  sixty  years  should  prevail  against  a  claim 
of  the  Crown  in  order  to  check  the  continual  forfeitures  of 
land ;  he  pledged  himself  to  mitigate  the  tests  imposed  on 
"recusants";  and  he  received  ^120,000 — a  great  sum  for  the 
Ireland  of  that  age — as  the  consideration  for  what  were  called 
his  "Graces."     But  he  availed  himself  of  an  infringement  of 


v.]      From  the  death  of  ElizabetJi  to  the  Restoration.     1 3  5 

the  celebrated  Law  of  Poynings,  to  prevent  these  concessions 
from  being  ratified  by  a  statute  made  by  the  Irish  Parliament ; 
and  he  soon  showed  that  he  would  not  fulfil  his  word.     In 
1633  Strafford  was  sent  to  Ireland;   the  Viceroyalty  of  that 
most  remarkable  man    forms  a  memorable  passage  in  Irish 
History.    The  Irish  policy  of  the  great  despotic  statesman  had, 
as  we  have    said,  much    in  common  with  that  which  Surrey 
had    proposed   a   century  before    to    Henry   VIII.     Strafford 
wished  to  make  the  King  absolutely  uncontrolled  in  Ireland, 
and  practically  to  subjugate  the  island  by  another  conquest. 
For  this  purpose  he  largely  increased  the  Irish  army ;  and  if 
this  force  was  to  be  employed  against  English  liberty  it  was 
also  to  uphold  in  Ireland  the  rule  of  the  sword.    Strafford,  too, 
spurned    "the   Graces"   aside;    he    pressed    on   the  work    of 
spoliation  in  Connaught,  with  a  determination  and  constancy 
that  bore  resistance  down ;  and  there  can  be  little  doubt  that 
many  other  parts  of  Ireland  were  marked  out  "  for  his  majestic 
rapine."     At  the  same  time  he  laid  a  weighty  and  levelling 
hand  on  all  orders  of  ruling  men  in  the  island ;  the  Council  at 
the  Castle,  Nobles,  Prelates,  Judges,  and  leaders  of  the  colonial 
caste,  bowed  submissively  to  his  imperious  will ;  "the  King,"  he 
boasted  with  reason,  "could  do  what  he  pleased  in  Ireland." 
And  Strafford,  like  Thomas   Cromwell  in  England,  saw  how 
a  Parliament  could  be  made  to  carry  out  his  work ;  thrusting 
aside  the  fears  of  his  weak  master  he  often  assembled  the  Irish 
Parliament ;  and  if  he  induced  it  to  pass  some  salutary  laws,  he 
played   its  discordant   factions   against  each  other,  and  com- 
pelled it  to  be  his  accomplice  in  promoting  arbitrary  power. 
The  Viceroy  even  went  so  far  as  to  attempt  to  enforce  religious 
conformity  throughout   the   country,  and   to   prop   up   Angli- 
canism by  fresh  penalties,  the  least  statesmanlike  of  all  his 
acts.     Ireland  was    kept  for  years  under  a  stern   despotism, 
maintained  by  the  strong  arm,  and  by  a  master  mind. 

The  tyranny  of  Strafford,  severe  as  it  was,  brought,  never- 


136  Ireland.  [Chap. 

theless,  good  fruits  \\ith  it.  He  enforced  order  with  a  steady 
will;  he  made  law  obeyed  and  respected,  to  a  degree  never 
seen  in  Ireland  before.  The  great  despot,  too,  kept  the  petty 
despots  under;  from  the  prelate  and  the  peer  to  the  last 
settler,  the  classes,  which  had  domineered  in  Ireland,  found 
their  occupation  of  wrong  gone;  the  jackals  shrunk  from  the 
lordly  lion.  If  he  confiscated,  on  an  immense  scale,  this  was 
done  without  distinction  of  blood  and  creed;  the  lands  of 
Protestant  and  Catholic,  of  Saxon  and  Celt,  were  equally  grist 
to  his  mill;  Irishmen  had  alike  to  submit  to  the  rights  of 
conquest.  If  the  Church  policy  of  Strafford,  too,  was  bad, 
especially  in  irritating  the  Scotch  colonists,  devoted  adherents 
"of  John  Knox,  he  was  the  first  and  one  of  the  few  Viceroys  who 
made  a  real  effort  to  reform  the  flagrant  abuses  of  the  Irish 
Anglican  Church ;  and  many  as  were  his  faults,  it  may  be  said 
of  him,  that  he  stood  supreme  above  Irish  factions,  and  gave 
Ireland  at  least  a  strong  and  firm  government.  Nor  can  it  be 
doubted  that  this  eminent  ruler  greatly  improved  the  material 
state  of  the  island ;  he  opened  sources  of  commerce,  lessened 
taxation,  encouraged  agriculture  in  many  ways ;  and  Ireland 
owes  her  linen  manufacture  to  him.  The  good  results  were 
seen  in  a  very  short  space  of  time ;  the  prosperity  of  Ireland, 
such  as  it  was,  made  a  marked  and  even  a  rapid  advance.  An 
historian,  by  no  means  partial  to  Strafford,  has  thus  described 
what  was  best  in  his  rule:  "Peace,  order,  obedience  and 
industry  distinguished  the  present  period  from  that  of  any 
former  administration ;  the  value  of  land  was  increased ; 
commerce  extended;  the  customs  amounted  to  almost  four 
times  their  former  sum ;  the  commodities  exported  from 
Ireland  were  twice  as  much  in  value  as  the  foreign  merchan- 
dise imported ;  and  shipping  was  found  to  have  increased 
even  an  hundredfold  \" 

^  Lc4and,  iii.  41. 


v.]     From  tJie  death  of  Elizabeth  to  the  Restoration.     137 

The  great  Viceroy  fell :  and  the  Irish  Parliament,  which 
had  meekly  obeyed  his  imperious  commands,  turned  suddenly 
against  him  in  the  hour  of  peril.  It  impeached  several  of 
Strafford's  creatures ;  agents  were  despatched  to  England  to 
remonstrate,  and  to  set  forth  its  grievances.  This  committee 
seems  to  have  been  in  close  relation  with  the  popular  leaders  in 
the  Long  Parliament ;  it  played  on  the  necessities  and  the  fears 
of  the  King ;  Charles  consented,  at  last,  to  concede  "  the 
Graces"  unjustly  withheld  by  a  Royal  breach  of  faith.  The 
time  for  compromise,  however,  had  passed ;  a  frightful  ex- 
plosion in  Ireland  was  about  to  burst.  At  the  Castle  the 
reins  had  fallen  into  the  hands  of  William  Parsons  and  John 
Borlase ;  the  Lords  Justices — as  their  title  was — were  utterly 
unfit  to  rule  the  country,  in  the  season  of  trouble  which  now 
had  opened.  By  this  time  Scotland  had  risen  against  the 
Crown ;  a  Scottish  army  had  entered  England ;  the  Long 
Parliament  was  in  conflict  with  the  King ;  in  England  and  in 
Ireland  alike  the  power  of  the  state  appeared  greatly  weakened. 
The  opportunity  was  not  missed  by  a  knot  of  men — nearly  all 
descendants  of  chiefs  of  different  degrees,  who  had  lost  their 
lands  through  the  Plantation  of  Ulster  and  other  confiscations 
of  the  two  last  reigns — to  strike  a  blow  to  regain  their  pos- 
sessions, and  to  stir  up  a  great  Irish  rising.  The  soul  of  the 
League  was  Roger  O' Moore — a  scion  of  the  old  race  which 
had  ruled  in  Leix ;  he  had  the  sympathy  at  heart  of  the  heir  of 
Tyrone,  an  exile  held  in  honour  at  the  Court  of  Spain,  in  the 
armies  of  which  he  had  served  with  distinction ;  and  he  found 
associates  in  O'Neills,  Maguires,  Macmahons,  O'Reillys,  Byrnes, 
representatives  of  ruined  tribes,  clans,  and  septs.  The  plan 
of  the  conspirators  was  to  seize  the  Castle  of  Dublin,  and  to 
paralyse  the  Government  on  the  spot ;  and  then  to  arouse  the 
Irishry  throughout  Ulster,  to  summon  them  to  arms  to  avenge 
their  wrongs,  and  to  take  hold  again  of  their  lost  lands.  The 
design  was  favoured   by  some  of  the  Irish   priesthood,   and 


138  Ireland.  [Chap. 

perhaps  by  two  obscure  men  of  the  Englishry  of  the  Pale ;  it 
received  countenance  from  Spanish  statesmen ;  and  Richelieu, 
at  this  moment  no  friend  of  England,  appears  at  least  to  have 
connived  at  it. 

The  meditated  attack  on  the  Castle  failed ;    it  had  been 
disclosed  by  a  mere  accident ;  and  two  of  the  rebel  chiefs  were 
arrested.     But  a  general  rising  took  place  in  Ulster;   on  the 
night  of  the  22nd  of  October  1641,  the  Irishry  sprang  up  and 
swept  over  the  province,  from  the  borders  of  Armagh  to  the 
hills  of  Donegal.     The  forts,  which  had  been  constructed  as 
centres  of  defence,  were  suddenly  seized  in  different  places ; 
some  of  the  few  towns  that  were  rising  were  captured ;    the 
colonists  and  their  families  were  driven  from  their  homes  in 
many  of  the  districts  which  had  been  lately  settled.     It  has 
been  alleged  by  a  series  of  writers  that  a  great  and  preconcerted 
massacre  occurred  of  men,  women  and  children  of  the  British 
name ;  the  number  has  varied  from  300,000  to  50,000  victims. 
But  this  is  a  myth  devised  by  passion  and  self-interest ;  un- 
questionably much  that  was  atrocious  was  done,  as  has  always 
happened  in  crises  of  the  kind  :    there  were  cruel  scenes  of 
revenge  and  blood ;  but  the  deaths  of  the  settlers  caused  by 
violence  seem  not  to  have  been  more  than  a  few  thousand, 
though  doubtless  numbers  perished  from  other  causes,  cold,  ex- 
posure, and  the  hardships  of  winter.     It  should  be  added  that, 
whatever  the  reason,  all  of  Scottish  blood  were  spared  at  first 
by  the  rebels ;  Sir  Phelim  O'Neill,  one  of  their  chief  leaders, 
announced  that  they  were  in  arms  in  the  name  of  the  King; 
these  two  facts  alone  tell  strongly  against  the  theory  that  there 
was  anything  that  can  be  called  a  general  massacred     On  the 
other  hand  the  colonists,  stricken  down  at  first,  had  ere  long 

^  It  is  impossible,  in  a  sketch  like  this,  to  examine  the  question  of  the 
alleged  massacre  of  1641.  The  subject  has  been  exhaustively  and  very  ably 
treated  by  Mr  Lecky,  History  of  Englandin  the  Eighteenth  Centu7y,  ii.  128, 
156. 


v.]     From  tJie  death  of  Elizabeth  to  the  Restoration.     1 39 

stood  savagely  at  bay ;  and,  after  the  fashion  of  a  dominant 
race,  they  were  guilty  of  barbarities  of  all  kinds,  probably  worse 
than  any  inflicted  on  them.  And  when  armed  troops  at  last 
appeared  in  the  field,  the  conduct  of  their  leaders  seems  to 
have  been  such  as  it  was  in  other  Irish  rebellions ;  the  country 
was  harried  far  and  wide ;  the  insurgents  were  slaughtered 
without  mercy,  or  regard  to  infancy,  sex,  and  age :  the  Irisliry 
were  treated  as  mere  beasts  of  prey.  The  rebellion  followed 
the  course  of  recent  confiscations ;  it  extended  into  Wicklow, 
Longford,  and  one  or  two  other  counties,  which  had  been 
scenes  of  recent  ''plantations." 

The  rising  of  the  Celts  of  Ulster  soon  received  the  support 
of  another  but  very  different  movement.  The  old  Englishry 
of  the  Pale  and  in  other  parts  of  Ireland  were,  we  have  seen, 
nearly  all  Catholics ;  they  had  suffered  from  the  religious 
persecution  of  late  years ;  they  were  exasperated  by  the  severe 
measures  taken  against  the  Catholics  of  England  by  the  Long 
Parliament.  An  Act  of  that  Assembly,  wholly  unlawful,  and 
trampHng  on  the  rights  of  the  Irish  Parliament,  which  offered 
lands  in  Ireland  to  such  "adventurers"  as  would  advance 
money  to  put  down  the  Ulster  rebellion,  had  alarmed  and 
provoked  some  of  their  leading  men ;  the  Lords  Justices 
had  grossly  affronted  several  Lords  of  the  Pale  by  hinting  that 
they  were  in  the  plot  of  O'Moore ;  they  had  refused  to 
convene  the  Irish  Parliament,  which  would  have  at  least 
listened  to  complaints  of  grievances  ;  and  a  widespread  feeling 
of  panic  was  abroad,  exhibited  in  stories  of  hideous  portents, 
that  Catholicism  in  Ireland  and  the  CathoHc  name  were  to  be 
extirpated  by  a  Puritan  crusade.  Many  Catholics  of  the  Pale 
at  last  rose  in  arms,  and  many  of  the  Catholic  Englishry 
in  other  counties ;  but  they  professed,  and  doubtless  felt, 
they  were  loyal  to  the  Crown,  and  they  rose  only  to  defend 
their  religion,  threatened,  as  they  not  unjustly  believed,  with 
destruction.     A  considerable  irregular  force  was  arrayed  and 


140  Ireland,  [Chap. 

placed  under  the  command  of  Preston,  a  scion  of  one  of  the 
Houses  of  the  Pale,  who  had  seen  much  service;  and  the 
insurrection  spread  over  parts  of  Leinster  and  Munster. 
Meanwhile  the  rebels  of  Ulster  had  passed  under  the  control 
of  Owen  Roe  O'Neill,  a  kinsman  of  the  illustrious  Tyrone,  and 
a  distinguished  soldier  in  the  army  of  Spain ;  and  O'IMoore — 
evidently  a  very  able  man — had  the  address  to  bring  together 
the  leaders  of  both  risings,  and  to  persuade  them  to  act  in 
concert  in  the  war.  The  "  armies "  of  the  Irishry  and  the 
Englishry  thus  nominally  coalesced,  though  they  had  scarcely 
a  single  object  in  common ;  and  their  chiefs  were  completely 
separated  in  their  aspirations  and  views. 

The  insurrectionary  forces,  though  mainly  composed  of 
peasants  hardly  armed,  and  the  rudest  levies,  had  soon 
swarmed  over  large  tracts  of  the  country,  keeping,  as  a  rule, 
divided  from  each  other  in  the  field.  The  resistance  they 
encountered  was  fitful  and  weak,  for  events  had  well-nigh 
paralysed  the  power  of  the  state.  The  Lords  Justices  made 
scarcely  a  sign,  and  have  been  charged  with  letting  the 
rebellion  go  on  in  order  to  reap  a  crop  of  forfeitures ;  the 
Royal  army,  commanded  by  Ormond,  a  most  noble-minded 
servant  of  Charles,  was  deplorably  small,  and  full  of  discontent ; 
the  Long  Parliament,  if  burning  to  strike  down  the  "  accursed 
Irish  Papists,"  whatever  their  race,  was  engaged  in  a  bitter 
quarrel  with  the  King,  and  was  unable  to  act  with  effect  in 
Ireland.  Civil  war  raged  in  three  of  the  Irish  provinces, 
in  a  desultory  fashion,  for  many  months ;  Connaught  alone 
was  kept  in  comparative  peace  by  Clanricarde,  the  head  of  the 
ancient  De  Burghs,  and  one  of  the  best  and  truest  of  the 
Cavaliers.  The  struggle  was  still  often  marked  by  atrocious 
deeds,  when  Protestant  and  CathoUc,  Saxon  and  Celt,  en- 
countered each  other  in  irregular  strife  :  these  scenes  formed  a 
hideous  war  of  race  and  religion.  But  when  anything  like  real 
war  was   conducted,  Preston   and    O'Neill   kept  their  troops 


v.]      From  the  death  of  Elizabeth  to  the  Restoration.     141 

under,  upheld  discipline,  always  gave  quarter ;  Ormond,  too, 
acted  as  became  a  soldier ;  Lord  Inchiquin  alone,  in  command 
for  the  Crown  in  Munster,  gave  a  free  hand  to  the  excesses  of 
his  men,  nearly  all  of  the  colonial  Englishry,  and  allowed  their 
evil  passions  to  run  riot.  The  conflict  disclosed  no  events  of 
interest ;  there  were  two  or  three  sieges  of  walled  towns ;  but 
nothing  worthy  of  the  name  of  a  battle  was  fought ;  the  scene 
was  one  of  petty  skirmishes,  general  confusion,  and  bloodshed. 
Numbers,  however,  and  enthusiasm  told  by  degrees  :  the  Royal 
army^  and  the  scanty  levies  sent  in  driblets,  from  time  to  time, 
by  the  Long  Parliament,  gradually  lost  their  hold  over  five- 
sixths  of  the  island,  though  they  retained  possession  of  many  of 
the  towns  and  forts.  By  the  summer  of  1643,  the  rebel  forces 
were  masters  of  by  far  the  greatest  part  of  Ireland. 

A  remarkable  effort  had,  meanwhile,  been  made  to  give  the 
two-fold  rising  coherence,  and  even  a  constitutional  aspect. 
The  rebellion  in  Ulster,  we  have  seen,  had  had  the  support  of 
some  of  the  Irish  priesthood;  and  the  Catholic  Primate  of 
Armagh  had  described  it  as  just.  This  was  a  significant 
prelude  to  what  followed ;  a  synod  of  the  great  body  of  the 
Catholic  clergy  met  in  Kilkenny  in  May  1642;  and  an 
Assembly,  professing  to  represent  the  Catholics  of  both  races, 
in  all  parts  of  Ireland,  met  also,  in  the  same  place,  in  October. 
It  deserves  notice  that  this  Convention,  which  spoke  for  the 
first  time  in  the  name  of  an  immense  majority  of  the  Irish 
people,  was  brought  together  by  sacerdotal  influence ;  nothing 
could  prove  more  the  power  of  the  priesthood,  and  how  even 
the  germs  of  Irish  national  life,  which  in  no  age  had  a  chance 
of  being  developed,  had  long  before  this  been  wholly  ex- 
tinguished. The  Assembly — it  strongly  resembled  in  form  the 
General  Assembly  of  the  Kirk  in  Scotland — was  composed  of 
clerical  and  lay  members ;  it  called  itself  the  "  Confederation 
of  the  Irish  Catholics";  it  assumed  most  of  the  authority  of  a 
real  Parliament,  and  of  the  executive  government  of  the  state. 


142  Ireland.  [Chap. 

It  was  ruled  by  a  Supreme  Council,  with  subordinate  pro- 
vincial and  lesser  Councils ;  the  Supreme  Council  took  into 
its  hands  the  general  direction  and  control  of  the  war,  and 
nearly  the  whole  administration  of  civil  affairs.  The  Con- 
federates repudiated  with  indignant  emphasis  the  charge  that 
they  were,  in  any  sense,  rebels  j  "  Irishmen,  unanimous  for 
God,  for  King,  for  Country," — such  was  the  device  on  their 
common  seal — they  declared  that  they  were  in  arras  only  to 
defend  the  rights  of  the  Church,  of  the  Crown,  of  Ireland ;  and 
while  they  announced  themselves  loyal  subjects  of  Charles, 
they  avowed  their  hostility  to  the  Long  Parliament — and 
especially  to  its  Puritan  zealots — flinging  back  on  these  the 
charge  of  rebellion.  They  prepared  lists  of  grievances  and 
demands  to  be  laid  before  the  King ;  and  at  the  same  time  the 
Council  divided  Ireland  into  four  districts  to  be  held  by 
its  troops,  and  sent  envoys  to  Foreign  Powers — France  and 
Austria  were  the  chief  of  these — to  seek  assistance,  or,  at  least, 
sympathy. 

Had  the  Confederates,  at  this  juncture,  been  swayed  by  a 
single  commanding  and  able  ruler,  and  been  firmly  united  in 
mind,  they  possibly  might  have  obtained  terms  for  Ireland, 
which  would  have  made  a  change  in  her  subsequent  history. 
The  civil  war  in  England  had  gone  against  the  Parliament ;  its 
authority  in  Ireland  was  very  weak ;  and  if  Charles  cared  Httle 
about  any  of  his  Irish  subjects,  he  probably  preferred  the 
Catholic  Irish  at  heart,  to  English  Puritan  and  Scotch  Presby- 
terian settlers,  even  if  these  formed  a  new  "English  interest." 
Ormond  too,  inclined  strongly  towards  the  old  Englishry ;  he 
had,  in  fact,  kinsmen  in  the  Confederate  ranks ;  Clanricarde,  a 
Catholic  himself,  held  the  same  sentiments ;  and  both  nobles, 
foremost  among  the  servants  of  the  Crosvn,  detested  the  men 
in  power  at  the  Castle,  and  had  no  liking  for  the  dominant 
colonial  caste  in  Ireland.  A  settlement,  therefore,  might  have 
been  effected,  which  would  have  undone  some,  at  least,  of  the 


v.]     From  the  death  of  Elizabeth  to  the  Restoration.     143 

wrongs  of  the  past ;  the  Long  Parliament  might  have  accepted 
a  compromise,  for  its  power  was,  at  present,  in  the  greatest 
danger.  But  there  was  no  Tyrone  in  the  Supreme  Council,  no 
one  deserving  the  name  of  a  true  statesman ;  and  once  more 
the  divisions,  which  so  often  have  wrecked  Irish  hopes,  de- 
prived the  Confederates  of  weight  and  strength,  though  in  this 
instance  Celtic  want  of  insight  was  not  chiefly  to  blame.  The 
sacerdotal  party  thought  only  of  the  claims  of  the  Church; 
wished  to  establish  it  in  complete  ascendency;  aimed  at 
making  Ireland  a  satellite  of  Rome,  a  Catholic  outpost  against 
Protestant  England.  The  old  Englishry  sought  merely  to 
obtain  a  mitigation  of  the  religious  tests,  to  secure  freedom  of 
worship  and  just  government :  they  had  a  traditional  aversion 
to  the  Celtic  Irishry ;  and  they  condemned  to  a  man  the 
rising  of  Ulster,  and  the  deeds  of  blood  which  had  been  the 
consequence.  The  Irish  Celts  and  their  leaders,  on  the  other 
hand,  had  their  eyes  fixed  on  their  tribal  possessions ;  they 
loved  their  ruined  altars,  but  their  hearts  were  set  on  being 
masters  again  of  their  lost  lands ;  and  they  had  bitterly 
resented  a  resolution  made  by  the  Supreme  Council,  which 
dashed  these  hopes.  The  Confederacy,  formidable  as  its 
appearance  was,  was  thus  really  little  better  than  a  rope  of  sand, 
which  an  accident,  or  even  a  slight  strain,  might  dissolve,  or 
at  least  render  of  not  much  practical  use. 

A  truce  or  cessation,  as  it  was  called,  was  made  between 
the  Confederates  and  the  King,  in  the  autumn  of  1643,  to  the 
intense  indignation  of  the  men  in  power  at  Westminster. 
Negotiations  went  on  for  many  months,  interrupted  by  oc- 
casional skirmishes  in  the  field  and  by  the  conflict  of  race  and 
creed  continuing  to  rage  in  many  parts  of  Ireland.  Extra- 
vagant demands  were  made  on  Charles  by  agents  of  the 
Catholic  Irish  League  and  of  the  Protestant  settlers,  significant 
of  the  passions  burning  in  their  hearts;  but  these  were 
dismissed  and  came  to  nothing.     The  position  of  the  King 


144  Ireland.  [Chap. 

had  become  difficult  in  the  extreme ;  to  yield  to  demands  of 
Irish  Catholics  would  increase  the  anger  of  Puritan  England, 
nay  irritate  his  most  devoted  friends ;  every  allowance  certainly 
is  to  be  made  for  him.  But  nothing  can  excuse  the  perfidious 
selfishness  of  his  conduct,  at  this  crisis  of  Irish  affairs ;  it  was  a 
principal  cause  of  his  unhappy  fate.  His  object  was  to  induce 
the  Confederacy  to  give  him  armed  support,  and  yet  to 
concede  as  little  as  possible  to  them,  and  he  employed 
Ormond,  now  Lord  Lieutenant,  to  make  what  he  called  "  the 
best  bargain  "  for  him,  and  to  treat  openly  on  this  basis.  But, 
seeking  as  it  were  to  have  two  strings  to  his  bow,  he  empowered 
a  favourite,  Glamorgan,  to  deal  in  secret  with  the  Catholic 
Irish,  and  to  offer  large  terms,  in  the  hope  of  gaining  their 
assistance,  in  any  event.  This  Kingcraft  seemed,  for  a 
moment,  successful ;  the  Confederates  trusting  to  Royal  pro- 
mises sent  a  contingent  of  troops  that  landed  in  England,  and 
made  preparations  to  send  more ;  and  though  these  auxiliaries 
were  destroyed  by  Fairfax,  Protestant  England  and  the  Parlia- 
ment were  long  kept  in  dread  of  an  invasion  of  Papist  Irishry, 
more  abhorred  than  savages,  and  stained,  as  it  was  noised 
abroad,  with  the  blood  of  a  hideous  massacre.  Meanwhile, 
Ormond,  loyal  and  honest,  proposed  a  settlement  which  went 
no  further  than  to  secure  a  kind  of  toleration  for  the  Irish 
Catholics,  and  a  limited  freedom  of  Catholic  worship ;  Gla- 
morgan held  out  brilliant  but  indistinct  hopes,  and  made  offers 
more  ample  than  those  of  Ormond  ;  but  neither  the  one  nor  the 
other  fell  in  with  the  demands  of  the  extreme  Confederate 
parties,  or  agreed  to  an  Irish  Catholic  ascendency,  or  to  a  revo- 
lution in  the  ownership  of  the  land.  Ere  long  Glamorgan's 
dealings  were  found  out;  Charles  instantly  disowned  them  in 
fear  and  trembling  at  the  anger  of  the  incensed  Parliament; 
and  as  Naseby  had  by  this  time  been  lost,  and  the  cause  of  the 
King  was  on  the  verge  of  ruin,  a  majority  of  the  Confederates 
thought  that  all  that  was  to  be  done  was  to  accept  the  terms 


v.]     From  the  death  of  Elizabeth  to  the  Restoration.     145 

of  Ormond,  almost  illusory  as  they  were.  They  had  gained 
scarcely  anything,  and  had  provoked  the  indignation  of  the 
great  mass  of  Englishmen ;  there  can  be  no  stronger  proof  of 
the  weakness  and  absence  of  wisdom,  and  of  the  divisions, 
which  prevailed  in  their  councils. 

The  "Peace  of  1646,"  as  it  was  called,  however,  did  not 
bring  the  civil  war  in  Ireland  to  an  end.  Charles,  now  a 
captive  in  the  hands  of  the  Scots,  let  Ormond  know  that  he 
would  not  be  bound  by  it — he  feared  Presbyterian  and  Puritan 
wrath — the  men  of  violence  in  the  Confederacy  protested 
against  it.  The  priestly  party  had,  for  some  time,  been 
backed  by  Rinuccini,  a  nuncio  from  Rome,  and  a  repre- 
sentative of  ultramontane  policy,  and  of  the  Catholic  revival, 
its  passions,  its  hopes;  and  Rinuccini  had  no  notion  of  con- 
senting to  the  terms  of  Ormond  for  Catholic  Ireland.  He 
cared  nothing  for  the  cause  of  a  heretic  king  \  he  had  regarded 
Glamorgan  as  an  empty  boaster ;  he  was  determined  to  secure 
Ireland  for  the  Church  and  the  Catholic  Powers  of  Europe. 
Drawing  the  priests  and  their  followers  in  his  wake,  he  flung 
himself  into  the  arms  of  Owen  Roe  O'Neill  and  of  the  insur- 
rectionary Celts  of  Ulster,  indignant  to  a  man  that  their  claims 
to  the  land  had  been  disregarded  in  the  negotiations  of  late 
years.  A  sudden  turn  in  the  war  had  just  given  O'Neill 
extraordinary  influence  in  the  Confederate  councils.  Monroe, 
an  officer  in  command  of  the  Parliamentary  forces  in  Ulster,  had 
sought  an  opportunity  to  attack  O'Neifl ;  on  the  5th  of  June 
1646,  he  crossed  the  Blackwater,  not  far  from  the  scene  of 
Tyrone's  victory  at  Yellow  Ford,  and  fell  on  the  Irish  leader 
near  the  village  of  Benburb.  He  was  at  the  head  of  some 
7000  men  ;  O'Neill  was,  it  seems,  inferior  in  numbers  ;  but  he 
contrived  to  keep  his  enemy  all  day  in  check,  until  he  had 
called  in  an  outlying  detachment;  and  he  skilfully  assailed 
Monroe  with  decisive  efl'ect,  as  that  commander  was  about  to 
retreat.      The   army   of    Monroe,    nearly   all    Scots,    fighting 

M.  I.  10    • 


146  Ireland.  [Chap. 

hopelessly,  with  a  river  at  its  back,  appears  to  have  been 
almost  destroyed ;  its  remains  fled  in  utter  rout,  far  beyond 
Armagh,  leaving  the  Irishry  masters  of  the  greatest  part  of 
Ulster. 

This  victory  raised  Irish  hopes  to  the  highest  pitch  of 
daring;  Rinuccini  and  his  adherents  beheld  a  vision  of 
Ireland  saved  by  a  Catholic  Holy  War;  O'Neill  and  his 
Celts  thought  the  time  had  come  when  the  land  would  be  set 
free  from  the  stranger.  The  moderate  party  in  the  Con- 
federacy was  swept  away ;  amidst  Te  Deums  in  Catholic 
places  of  worship,  execrations  of  heresy  and  its  votaries,  and 
wild  gatherings  of  the  Irishry  in  arms,  the  war  broke  out 
fiercer  than  ever,  and  spread  far  and  wide.  Preston  and 
O'Neill  continued  in  command ;  they  approached  Dublin 
with  a  motley  force  of  probably  20,000  men,  much  larger 
than  any  which  could  be  opposed  to  it.  The  capital  was  for 
a  time  in  real  danger:  but  Preston  and  O'Neill  disliked  each 
other;  their  troops  were  men  of  different  races  and  thoughts; 
Irish  divisions  and  jealousies  fought  once  more  on  the  side  of 
the  enemies  of  the  Irish  cause,  and  paralysed  the  arms  that 
sought  to  uphold  it.  The  menacing  demonstration  came  to 
nothing :  a  long  series  of  negotiations  followed,  in  which 
Ormond  endeavoured  in  vain  to  induce  the  Confederates  to 
accept  the  Peace.  His  resolution  was  ere  long  taken  :  it  was 
worthy  of  his  noble  and  high-minded  character.  The  Parlia- 
ment and  the  Army  were  now  supreme  in  England ;  reinforce- 
ments were  being  sent  by  degrees  to  uphold  the  Protestant 
name  in  Ireland,  and  to  make  English  authority  felt ;  the  King 
was  a  discrowned  prisoner,  weaving  the  web  of  guile,  in 
which  he  was  to  be  fatally  meshed.  Ormond  had  no  thought 
of  leaving  Ireland  a  prey  to  Rinuccini  and  rebellious  Celts  in 
arms;  of  blotting  out  the  English  and  Scotch  settlements; 
of  making  the  island  a  scene  of  turbulent  anarchy ;  and  as  he 
could  rule  no  longer  himself,  he  handed  his  trust  over  to  the 


v.]     From  the  deatJi  of  Elizabeth  to  tJie  Restoration.     147 

rulers  in  power.  He  resigned  his  Lieutenancy  to  Commis- 
sioners named  by  the  ParHament,  and  left  Ireland  still  a  loyal 
servant  of  the  Crown. 

At  this  critical  juncture  the  tide  turned  quickly  and  strongly 
against  the  Confederates  in  the  field.  Dublin  had  been  placed 
in  the  hands  of  Michael  Jones,  a  stout  and  able  Puritan  soldier ; 
he  succeeded  in  mustering  a  respectable  force,  and  he  com- 
pletely defeated  Preston  near  the  borders  of  Meath.  Mean- 
while Inchiquin,  a  scion  of  the  great  race  of  O'Brien,  who  had 
gone  over  to  the  side  of  the  Parliament,  had  stormed  the  holy 
city  of  Cashel;  in  a  short  time  he  routed  the  Confederate 
Taaffe,  in  a  combat  amidst  the  Tipperary  wilds.  These 
defeats,  and  the  growing  power  of  the  Houses  at  Westminster, 
placed  the  Moderate  party  in  the  Confederacy  in  the  ascendant 
again;  Rinuccini  and  O'Neill  resisted  in  vain;  negotiations 
were  opened  once  more  with  Ormond  and  with  Henrietta 
Maria,  the  Queen  of  Charles,  both  at  this  time  in  France.  A 
treaty  was  made  towards  the  close  of  1648'  containing  some- 
what larger  concessions  than  that  which  had  proved  abortive 
two  years  before ;  and  Commissioners  of  Trust,  as  they  were 
called,  were  appointed  to  see  its  provisions  executed.  This 
compact  was  accepted  by  the  great  body  of  the  Confederates 
as  all  they  could  reasonably  expect ;  Ormond  returned  to 
Ireland,  and  a  large  part  of  the  Confederate  forces  united  with  a 
few  thousand  Royalists,  still  willing  to  follow  their  old  leader ; 
the  whole  being  placed  under  Ormond's  command.  The 
execution  of  the  King  ere  long  followed ;  and  this  tragic  event 
gave  a  great  increase  to  the  power  of  Ormond  thus  strangely 
restored.  The  old  Englishry,  who  had  never  lost  their  attach- 
ment to  the  Crown,  took  up  arms  again  in  its  cause,  and  shook 
off  all  contact  with  rebel  Celts ;  Inchiquin  returned  to  his 
former  allegiance,  and  appeared  in  the  field  with  his  Munster 

^  It  was  not  actually  signed  until  14  January,  1649,  hut  it  had  been 
arranged  some  time  before. 

10 2 


148  Ireland.  [Chap. 

levies ;  and  Ormond  soon  found  himself  at  the  head  of  forces 
formidable  in  numbers  at  least.  A  thrill  of  loyalty  had  passed 
over  Ireland,  and  had  produced  great  and  unexpected  results. 
Rinuccini  had  left  Ireland  by  this  time;  he  had  failed  to 
annex  the  island  to  the  Holy  See.  Owen  Roe  O'Neill,  how- 
ever, remained ;  it  ought  to  have  been  his  first  step  to  join 
Ormond  and  the  Confederates  in  the  war.  The  English 
Parliament  had  marked  down  his  Celts  for  vengeance,  and 
had  disposed  beforehand  of  Irish  lands;  he  should  have  made 
common  cause  against  the  common  foe.  But  he  bitterly 
resented  the  late  peace  and  the  attitude  of  the  old  Englishry; 
no  provision  had  been  made  for  the  forfeited  lands ;  he  kept 
aloof  from  his  former  allies,  nay  negotiated  with  Parlia- 
mentary men  in  England — a  passage  of  history  that  remains 
obscure.  Meanwhile  Ormond  and  his  forces  overran  the 
country ;  even  the  Scots  of  Ulster  had  declared  for  the  King, 
for  the  tragedy  at  Whitehall  had  stirred  all  Scotsmen ;  Deny 
and  Dublin  were  the  only  towns  of  any  size  that  held  out  for 
the  Regicide  Commonwealth ;  the  prospects  of  Charles  II 
seemed  so  promising  that  his  arrival  in  Ireland  was  daily 
expected.  Ormond  laid  siege  to  Dublin  in  the  summer  of 
1649;  and  his  success  was,  at  Westminster,  deemed  to  be 
certain.  In  an  attempt,  however,  to  cut  off  supplies  from  the 
Bay,  he  extended  his  army,  and  Avas  struck  down  by  Jones ; 
his  retreat  from  the  capital  was  the  first  signal  of  the  discom- 
fiture of  the  Confederate  cause.  It  was  now  known  that 
Cromwell  was  on  his  way  to  Ireland ;  Owen  Roe  O'Neill 
turned  at  last  to  Ormond,  and  offered  to  unite  with  him 
against  the  dreaded  invasion.  But  the  divisions  of  Irishmen 
had  done  their  work ;  the  opportunity,  as  had  happened  so 
often,  was  lost;  a  terrible  hour  for  Ireland  was  at  hand. 
O'Neill  died  a  few  weeks  afterwards ;  he  was  certainly  a  brave 
and  accomplished  warrior ;  he  is  still  a  hero  of  the  traditions 
of  the  Irish  Celt;  but  he  was  evidently  devoid  of  statesmanlike 


v.]     From  the  death  of  Elizabeth  to  the  Restoration.     149 

wisdom.  He  is  largely  to  blame  for  the  disunion  that  did  so 
much  to  wreck  the  cause  of  his  countrymen  in  the  long  civil 
war ;  he  seems,  like  so  many  Celts,  to  have  been  carried  away 
by  fancies,  and  to  have  been  unable  to  understand  hard  facts'. 
Cromwell  landed  in  Dublin  in  August  1649,  ^^  the  head  of 
10,000  men  of  the  New  Model,  the  invincible  soldiers  of 
Naseby  and  Preston.  In  justice  to  a  great  ruler  of  men  it  is 
necessary  to  remember  from  what  point  of  view  he  regarded 
Ireland  and  Irish  affairs.  A  Puritan  of  the  sternest  type,  he 
hated  Irish  Catholics,  whether  Celts  or  Saxons ;  he  had 
witnessed  a  combination  to  make  Ireland  a  place  of  arms  for 
the  Catholic  Powers,  a  centre  of  the  detested  influence  of 
Rome.  But,  in  addition,  he  believed  that  Ulster  had  been 
the  scene  of  a  general  massacre  of  the  British  settlers ;  the 
Protestant  caste  in  Ireland,  in  his  eyes,  was  the  only  order  of 
men  that  could  be  true  to  England,  nay  capable  of  being  a 
civilised  race ;  he  knew  that  England  had  been  threatened  by 
an  invasion  of  the  abhorred  Irishry,  during  many  years;  the 
great  majority  of  Irishmen  were  resisting  England  to  the  last^ 
He  had  resolved,  therefore,  to  lay  a  heavy  hand  on  Ireland ; 
to  exact  a  terrible  vengeance,  righteous  in  his  belief;  to  be 
the  chosen  instrument  of  the  wrath  of  God,  in  punishing  an 
accursed  and  rebellious  people.  His  feelings,  in  a  word,  were 
those  of  the  Englishmen  of  his  day  who  had  devoted  their 
lives  and  swords  to  the  Puritan  cause,  indeed  of  the  great  body 
of  Englishmen,  whose  hatred  and  contempt  of  the  Irish  had 


^  The  confused  and  complicated  events  of  the  civil  war  in  Ireland  from 
1 64 1  to  1649,  ^^'^  better  described  by  Mr  Gardiner  than  by  any  other 
historian.  Leland's  narrative  is  also  good.  For  the  feelings  of  the  Irish 
Celts,  see  two  remarkable  ballads  by  Thomas  Davis  and  Sir  Gavan  Duffy 
in  The  Spirit  of  the  Nation,  ii  and  28. 

-  For  Cromwell's  views  on  Ireland,  at  this  conjuncture,  see  Mr  Gardiner's 
History  of  the  Comniomvealth  and  Protectorate,  I.  pp.  139-40,  147-8,  and  a 
remarkable  letter  of  Cromwell,  pp.  163-4. 


150  Ireland.  [Chap. 

only  increased ;  they  were  shared  by  his  army  of  fierce  zealots  j 
and  the  fanaticism  of  his  men  was,  no  doubt,  quickened  by 
the  prospect  of  a  rich  spoil  of  Irish  land. 

The  Puritan  army  had  reached  Drogheda  in  the  first  week 
of  September.  The  place,  a  walled  town,  of  some  strength, 
was  held  by  Sir  Arthur  Aston,  a  Royalist  officer,  with  about 
3000  men,  in  a  great  measure  English.  Cromwell's  batteries 
ere  long  effected  a  breach :  the  besieged,  however,  held 
stubbornly  out ;  a  fierce  assault  was  made  on  a  shattered 
rampart;  and  Cromwell  passed  the  word  round,  that  there  was 
to  be  no  quarter.  A  horrible  scene  of  bloodshed  followed ; 
Aston  and  many  of  his  troops  were  slaughtered ;  little  mercy 
was  shown  to  the  Irishry  in  the  town ;  Catholic  friars  were 
seized  and  killed  in  cold  blood.  Having  struck  a  blow  meant 
to  deal  terror,  Cromwell  marched  southwards  along  the  coast  \ 
he  had  the  command  of  the  sea,  and  knew  its  value ;  he  was 
aware  of  the  obstacles  to  an  advance  inland,  and  of  the  dangers 
of  the  Irish  climate  to  English  soldiers, — proved  by  the  ex- 
perience of  many  wars ;  and  he  had  determined,  with  true 
military  insight,  not  to  penetrate  into  the  interior  until  he  had 
made  his  power  felt.  He  was  before  Wexford  in  the  early  days 
of  October ;  the  townsmen,  it  is  said,  had  done  much  injury  to 
English  shipping  by  acts  of  piracy;  at  all  events  they  were 
nearly  all  "  Irish  Papists."  The  place  fell  mainly  through  an 
act  of  treason,  but  the  atrocities  of  Drogheda  occurred  again ; 
the  butchery  that  went  on  seems  to  have  been  dehberate. 
Friars  were  also,  in  this  instance,  marked  down  for  vengeance; 
the  crucifixes  they  held  out,  in  hopes  of  mercy,  were  signs  of 
idolatry  in  Puritan  eyes ;  they  were  pitilessly  slain  as  the 
most  hateful  of  men.  "  God,"  wrote  Cromwell  to  Speaker 
Lenthall,  "  in  His  righteous  justice  brought  a  just  judgment 
upon  them." 

The  deeds  done  at  Drogheda  and  Wexford  were  of  the 
most  ruthless  kind ;  Puritan  wrath  was  certainly  one  of  Crom- 


v.]     From  the  death  of  Elizabeth  to  the  Restoration.      151 

well's  motives.  But  they  were  not  without  example  in  the 
wars  of  that  age ;  it  was  necessary  to  strike  a  terrible  blow,  in 
the  existing  state  of  affairs  in  Ireland ;  and  as  the  English 
troops  of  Aston  were  the  first  to  suffer,  military  ends  were 
perhaps  the  principal  object.  Be  this  as  it  may,  the  cruel  fate 
of  Drogheda  caused  the  surrender  of  many  fortified  towns; 
that  of  Wexford  opened  the  south  of  Leinster  to  Cromwell. 
The  victorious  army  now  marched  inland ;  the  campaign  that 
followed  was  not  without  changes  of  fortune.  Cromwell  was 
forced  to  draw  off  from  the  walls  of  VVaterfordj  and  though 
Kilkenny  fell  to  his  arms,  a  stern  resistance  was  offered  by 
Clonmel,  where  Hugh  O'Neill,  worthy  of  his  illustrious  race, 
kept  the  conqueror  at  bay  for  more  than  two  months.  Whether 
these  checks  are  to  be  ascribed  to  the  courage  of  despair, 
aroused  by  a  struggle  of  life  and  death,  exasperated  by  ferocious 
passions,  or  more  probably  to  the  great  difficulty  of  conducting 
war  in  an  intricate  country — from  the  days  of  Strongbow  to 
that  of  Mountjoy  the  chief  obstacle  to  invasion  from  England — 
the  ultimate  result  was  scarcely  retarded.  The  task  of  Crom- 
well in  Ireland  was  ere  long  completed ;  the  ever  recurring 
divisions  and  feuds  of  Irishmen  contributed  to  the  event,  as 
had  so  often  happened.  The  impulse  which  had  united 
Ormond  and  the  Confederates,  for  a  time,  soon  lost  its  force 
and  gave  way  under  the  stress  of  defeat;  the  Royalists,  for 
the  most  part  Protestants,  had  little  in  common  with  Catholics 
in  arms,  opposed  to  them  in  the  field  but  yesterday ;  and  this 
was  notably  the  case  with  the  levies  of  Inchiquin,  composed, 
as  we  have  seen,  of  English  settlers,  and  hated  by  the 
Catholics  since  the  storm  of  Cashel.  A  great  defection  took 
place  in  Munster;  thousands  of  the  troops  of  Inchiquin  and 
Ormond  went  over  to  the  Puritan  camp;  the  hopes  of 
Charles  II  in  Ireland  were  suddenly  quenched;  the  Con- 
federacy once  more  was  almost  broken  up.  Cromwell  took 
his  departure  from  Ireland  in  May  1650;  he  had,  as  always, 


152  Ireland.  [Chap. 

shown  himself  to  be  a  great  soldier,  if  humanity  shudders  at 
Wexford  and  Drogheda. 

A  large  part  of  Ireland  had  now  been  subdued,  but 
Ormond  had  still  an  army  in  the  field ;  it  was  not  impossible 
still  to  defend  the  line  of  the  Shannon  and  the  wilds  of 
Connaught.  But  Ormond  was  a  Protestant  and  a  servant  of 
the  young  King;  the  war  in  Ireland  had  aroused  the  worst 
rehgious  passions,  especially  since  the  advent  of  Cromwell ; 
the  conduct  of  Charles  in  Scotland,  where  he  had  declared 
himself  the  instrument  of  the  Presbyterians  in  power,  had  filled 
the  Irish  Catholics  with  terror  and  despair ;  and  a  new  schism 
divided  their  councils.  The  sacerdotal  party  came  once  more  to 
the  front;  a  Catholic  Bishop  appeared  in  the  field  and  fell, 
preaching  a  Holy  War  with  his  dying  lips;  Catholic  priests 
assembled  their  flocks  in  thousands,  denouncing  Ormond  and 
the  "  Dagon  of  loyalty " ;  Catholic  Ireland  was  told  to  stand 
aloof  from  a  false  king,  from  heretics  in  the  guise  of  Royalists, 
from  Protestants  whatever  side  they  took  in  the  war;  and  in 
these  circumstances  it  was  but  too  evident  that  the  contest 
could  not  be  long  maintained.  Ormond  was  driven  from 
Limerick,  where  he  had  hoped  to  make  a  stand,  by  a  rabble 
maddened  by  these  wild  appeals ;  and  after  parleying  with  the 
Confederates  for  some  time,  he  returned  to  France  feeling  all 
was  lost.  His  ofiice  was  conferred  by  Charles  on  Clanricarde: 
an  Irish  Catholic,  it  was  hoped,  could  yet  do  something  with 
Irish  Catholics ;  and  Clanricarde  made  strenuous  efforts  to  win 
over  the  Moderates  of  the  League  to  the  side  of  the  King. 
The  priestly  leaders,  however,  prevailed ;  they  actually  offered 
Ireland,  as  a  kind  of  prize,  to  the  Duke  of  Lorraine,  and  were 
indignant  that  the  offer  was  refused.  Meanwhile  Ireton,  who 
had  taken  command  of  Cromwell's  army,  had  advanced  to 
the  Shannon  ;  Athlone  was  captured,  and  Limerick  fell  after 
another  noble  effort  of  Hugh  O'Neill ;  and  Galway  was  before 
long  surrendered,  the  military  operations  of  the  Irish  having 


v.]     From  the  death  of  Elizabeth  to  the  Restoration.     153 

been  almost  paralysed.  The  civil  war  in  Ireland  had  come  to 
an  end ;  the  catastrophe  had  been  accelerated  by  one  of  the 
worst  instances  of  Irish  dissension  that  history  records. 

Ireland  lay  prostrate  at  the  feet  of  Cromwell ;  the  doom  of 
the  great  Puritan  was  sternly  enforced.  Some  of  the  leaders  of 
the  rebellion  of  1641  had  perished ;  some  remained  to  fall  into 
the  hands  of  the  hangman.  The  religion  of  the  great  body  of 
the  Irish  people  was  proscribed,  as  idolatry  to  be  purged  out 
of  the  land ;  the  celebration  of  the  Mass  was  made  a  crime ; 
not  a  few  priests  who  tried  to  live  among  their  flocks,  and  to 
do  their  sacred  office  in  secret,  were  carried  off  to  the  West 
Indies  and  sold  as  slaves.  This  was  the  fate,  too,  of  many 
of  the  Irishry  who  had  appeared  in  arms;  merchants  from 
Bristol  contracted  for  the  odious  traffic  of  shipping  them  to 
Larbadoes  for  the  planters ;  hundreds  were  doubtless  thrown  to 
the  sharks  on  the  voyage;  but  the  descendants  of  the  exiles 
are  still  known  as  what  are  called  "  the  low  whites "  of  the 
island.  The  lot,  however,  of  the  great  body  of  the  Confederate 
forces  was  less  wretched;  it  was  shared  by  numbers  of  Irish 
Catholics  who  could  no  longer  live  in  the  land  of  their  birth. 
Ever  since  the  days  of  Tyrone  and  Desmond  Irish  soldiers  had 
made  their  way  to  the  Continent ;  it  was  deemed  good  policy 
by  the  English  Council  of  State,  to  encourage  an  emigration  of 
this  kind  and  to  drain  away  elements  that  might  become 
perilous.  From  30,000  to  40,000  men,  who  had  served,  for 
the  most  part,  in  the  late  contest,  were  thus  allowed  to  depart 
from  Ireland;  they  flocked  to  the  camps  of  foreign  Powers; 
and  they  formed  the  first  contingent  of  the  host  of  Irish  exiles, 
bitter  enemies  of  the  British  name  for  more  than  a  century  and 
a  half 

The  subjugation  of  Ireland  inspired  Cromwell  with  a 
project  of  colonisation  and  of  settHng  the  land,  more  general 
and  complete  than  had  been  ever  thought  of  The  Long 
Parliament,    we    have    seen,   had    offered   forfeited    lands   to 


154  Ireland.  [Chap. 

"adventurers"  who  had  advanced  moneys  in  the  Irish  war; 
the  Puritan  army  was  formidable  and  large ;  and  unhappily 
nearly  the  whole  of  the  Irish  people  had  been  in  arms  against 
the  newborn  Commonwealth.  Protestant  Royalists  had  fought 
for  Charles  with  Ormond;  even  the  Irish  Presbyterians  had 
resisted  Cromwell;  the  old  Englishry  and  the  Irishry,  all 
Catholics,  with  few  exceptions,  had  been  in  the  field  against 
Puritan  England,  for  long  years ;  the  Irishry  of  the  Celtic  race 
in  Ulster  were  stained  with  the  blood  of  1641.  Enormous 
confiscations  had  been  already  made;  Cromwell  resolved  to 
"  plant "  the  "  adventurers  "  and  his  victorious  soldiery  in  these 
tracts  in  Leinster,  Munster,  and  Ulster;  and  to  compel  the 
"rebel"  owners  of  land  to  take  refuge  in  Connaught.  The 
forfeited  lands  in  four  counties  were  set  apart  for  the  use  of 
the  Commonwealth ;  those  in  eighteen  were  to  be  bestowed 
on  the  "adventurers"  and  the  Puritan  host;  those  in  seven 
were  to  be  given  to  the  English  army  at  home,  and  to  the 
levies  of  Munster  which  had  deserted  the  King.  The  lands 
were  to  be  allotted  at  nominal  prices,  to  pay  the  "adventurers  " 
and  the  arrears  of  the  army ;  the  portion  of  those  who  had  lost 
their  possessions  was  to  be  "  Hell  or  Connaught,"  a  phrase 
that  has  come  down  to  this  time.  Spoliation,  on  this  gigantic 
scale,  was  veiled  under  a  semblance  of  law :  "  Courts  of 
Claims"  were  set  up,  in  which  those  who  could  prove  "con- 
stant affection"  to  England  since  1641  were  not  to  be  ejected 
from  their  lands — the  judges,  be  it  observed,  were  Puritans ; — 
but  a  test  of  this  kind  was  well-nigh  mockery.  About  40,000 
new  owners  of  land  were  thus  to  be  scattered  over  three-fourths 
of  Ireland,  and  even,  to  a  certain  extent,  in  Connaught ;  for 
that  province  at  last  was  not  exempted  from  large  forfeitures. 
But  it  should  be  observed,  as  had  so  often  occurred  before,  the 
owners  of  land  were  alone  to  be  disturbed ;  the  cultivators  of 
the  soil  were  to  remain  on  it,  hewers  of  wood  and  drawers  of 
water  foi  Puritan  masters. 


v.]     From  the  death  of  Elisabeth  to  the  Restoration.     1 5  5 

The  Confiscation  was  carried  out  by  degrees  from  1652  to 
1654.  The  Royalist  Protestant  owners  were  largely  spared; 
but  numbers  of  the  old  Catholic  Englishry  and  of  the  Irish 
Celts  were  deprived  of  their  estates,  and  were,  as  it  was  called, 
"transplanted"  to  Connaught.  Millions  of  acres  were  trans- 
ferred by  these  means ;  descendants  of  barons  of  the  Pale  and 
of  Irish  chiefs  were  proscribed  and  ruined  by  equal  wrong ; 
the  distinction  of  blood  between  the  two  races  was  thus 
lessened,  and  that  of  religion  was  made  more  marked;  all 
had  been  condemned  as  "  Papists  "  and  "  rebels."  Thousands 
of  "  adventurers  "  and  soldiers  were  poured  into  these  districts, 
all  Protestants,  probably  for  the  most  part  Puritans,  and 
animated  by  hatred  and  scorn  of  the  Irishry  in  their  midst. 
The  method  by  which  the  settlement  was  at  last  completed 
curiously  illustrates  the  ideas  and  sentiments  of  the  time. 
The  "adventurers"  and  the  soldiers  were  "planted"  together 
for  the  sake  probably  of  common  defence ;  and  the  lands  were 
to  be  distributed  to  the  soldiers  by  lot,  for  they  had  announced 
that  they  "would  rather  take  a  lott  upon  a  barren  mountain 
from  the  Lord,  than  a  portion  in  the  most  fruitful  valley  of 
their  own  choice."  Unfortunately,  however,  when  the  trial 
came  the  military  saints  rose  up  in  wrath;  the  lands  to  be 
divided  were  of  most  unequal  value ;  those  whose  lot  fell  on  a 
bad  heritage  quarrelled  with  those  whose  lot  fell  upon  a  good ; 
they  had  ceased  to  approve  of  the  ways  of  Providence.  After 
long  disputes  and  troubles,  a  very  able  man,  Dr  Petty,  was 
selected  by  Henry  Cromwell — he  had  been  made  Deputy  by 
the  Protector — to  carry  out  the  scheme  of  colonisation  in  a 
rational  way.  Petty  made  an  excellent  survey  of  Ireland,— 
a  remarkable  performance  for  the  seventeenth  century — and 
distributed  most  of  the  forfeited  lands  among  the  new  colonists 
in  tolerably  just  proportions,  and  with  a  due  regard  to  value. 

The  results  of  Cromwell's  settlement  of  the  land  of  Ireland 
must  be  noticed  when,  a  few  years  afterwards,  it  was  modified 


r 


156  Ireland.  [Chap. 

to  a  considerable  extent.     Enough  here  to  say  that  in  large 
parts  of  Ireland  it  placed  a  ruling  caste,  in  the  main  Puritan, 
and  almost  wholly  of  English  descent,   on   the   neck  of  the 
Catholic    Irish    people ;    and — apart   from    special   causes   of 
decline — such  a  scheme  of  landed  relations  could  not  really 
flourish.       Yet   there   is    much    evidence    that    Ireland   made 
material  progress  in  the  years  that  followed ;  though  probably 
this,  in  a  great  degree,  was  another  illusion  of  English  states- 
men.    It    is    true    that,    except    during    the    shock    of   the 
Cromwellian  storm,  the  country  was  less  ruined  and  harried 
than    in   the   wars   of   Elizabeth's  reign ;   yet  civilisation  was 
generally  effaced  where   it  had  begun  to  make   its  influence 
felt;    a    number    of    towns    and    villages    were    destroyed; 
a  third  part  of  the  population,  it  has  been  said,  disappeared 
again.     In   circumstances   like   these   the    establishment   of  a 
strong:   Government — for    Cromwell   ruled   in   Ireland  with   a 
high  hand — the  introduction  of  a  new  breed  of  colonists,  and 
the  advance   of  agriculture  in  their   train,  above  all  the  en- 
forcement of  order  and  law,  seem  to  have  produced  benefi- 
cent results,  as  regards  the  resources  and  the  wealth  of  the 
country ;  these  certainly  increased,  as  in  the  time  of  Strafford. 
The  peace,  indeed,  was  the  peace  of  oppression  and  despair; 
signs  were  soon  seen  that  it  could  not  be  lasting ;  the  ashes 
were  burning  beneath  the  surface.     Nevertheless  Clarendon, 
an  unwiUing  witness,  thus  described  some  effects  of  Cromwell's 
rule  in  Ireland ;  "  there  were  many  buildings  raised  for  beauty, 
as  well  as  use,  orderly  and  regular  plantations  of  trees,  and 
fences  and  enclosures  raised  throughout  the  kingdom,  purchases 
made   by  one  from  another,  at  very  valuable  rates,   and  all 
other  conveyances  and  settlements  executed,  as  in  a  kingdom 
at  peace  with  itself^" 

Cromwell  effected  one  great  Constitutional  change  in  the 
Government  of  Ireland  deserving  special  notice.     The  Long 

^  See  Macaulay's  essay  on  Sir  William  Temple,  11.  i^,  ed.  1854. 


v.]     From  the  death  of  Elizabeth  to  the  Restoration.      157 

Parliament,  we  have  seen,  had  violated  the  rights  of  the  Irish 
Parliament ;  the  Irish  Parliament  had  had,  for  years,  a  strong 
Catholic  minority  in  it.  This  state  of  things  was  not  to  be 
endured  by  the  great  Puritan  despot  of  England ;  besides, 
Cromwell  doubtless  perceived  that  the  parliamentary  unity  of 
the  Three  Kingdoms  was  necessary  to  secure  for  England  a 
leading  place  in  Europe.  He  did  away  with  the  Irish  Parlia- 
ment, but  summoned  a  certain  number  of  members,  of  course 
of  the  dominant  race  and  faith,  to  represent  Ireland  in  his 
reformed  House  of  Commons ;  he  was  thus  the  precursor  of 
the  Union  of  another  as^e.  His  rule  in  Ireland  continued  to 
be  the  stern  tyranny  it  was  from  the  first,  but  not  a  murmur 
of  discontent  was  heard ;  the  land,  we  have  said,  was  at  peace 
under  the  Puritan  sword.  Henry  Cromwell,  who  remained  at 
the  head  of  Irish  affairs,  was  a  right-minded  and  humane  man ; 
he  restrained  the  fanaticism  of  his  Council  to  a  certain  extent ; 
but  the  great  mass  of  the  Irish  people  was  kept  in  a  state  of 
abject  submission.  The  revolution,  which  after  the  death  of 
Cromwell  led  to  the  Restoration  of  Charles  II,  ran  a  course, 
in  Ireland,  somewhat  like  that  in  England.  There  was  no 
Rump  like  that  of  the  Long  Parliament,  but  the  army  and 
its  leading  chiefs  were  divided;  Ludlow,  who  had  been  ap- 
pointed to  command  in  Dublin,  aspired  to  play  the  part  of 
Lambert;  but  a  junta  of  the  old  Royalist  officers  seized  the 
reins  of  power,  and  soon  came  into  communication  with 
Monk.  A  slight  attempt  at  opposition  was  made  by  Crom- 
wellian  soldiers,  who  had  settled  on  their  lands ;  but  Ireland 
like  England  declared  for  a  "free  Parliament,"  and  Charles 
was  ere  long  seated  on  his  Irish  throne. 

During  the  period  we  have  been  just  surveying  some  of 
the  characteristics  of  the  Ireland  of  the  past  disappear  or 
become  less  prominent.  We  pass  from  the  Ireland  of  the 
Pale  extended  by  conquest,  but  still  largely  affected  by  Celtic 
usage,  to  an  Ireland  subjugated  and  under  English  law;  we 


158  Ireland.  [Chap. 

reach  a  time  of  something  h"ke  Constitutional  Government 
supreme  in  every  part  of  the  country  j  we  see  at  the  Castle  the 
rule  of  the  soldier  replaced  by  that  of  the  prelate  and  lawyer, 
and  of  the  commanding  mind  of  Strafford.  An  era  of  horrible 
civil  war  follows ;  the  hostile  races  and  faiths  of  Ireland 
encounter  each  other  in  deadly  conflict;  an  immense  majority 
of  the  Irish  people,  at  a  time  when  religious  passions  had 
peculiar  force,  engage  in  a  struggle  with  Puritan  England ;  and 
Cromwell  closes  tlie  strife,  crushing  Ireland  down,  and  ruling 
the  country  with  an  iron  hand  after  effecting  an  immense 
change  in  its  social  condition.  The  period,  as  a  whole, 
contains  two  phases ;  each  presents  dark  and  sinister  features, 
and  reveals  much  that  History  deplores,  if  all  is  not  disastrous 
and  evil. 

In  the  first  phase  peace  is  not  broken  by  the  sword,  but 
an  archaic  type  of  society  is  effaced  by  the  introduction  of 
English  law  and  land-tenures,  by  force ;  and  vast  tracts  of 
Ulster  are  torn  from  their  old  possessors,  and  made  the  seat 
of  a  colony  foreign  in  faith  and  blood.  Large  confiscations 
follow  that  are  mere  acts  of  wrong ;  and  the  extension  of  the 
sphere  of  the  Anglican  Church,  the  continuous  immigration  of 
Protestant  settlers,  the  fierce  resistance  of  the  Irish  Catholic 
Church,  and  the  religious  persecution  which  is  the  result, 
enormously  increase  animosities  of  creed  and  enlarge  the  old 
and  deep  divisions  of  race  in  Ireland.  The  Irish  Parliament, 
also,  is  packed,  in  the  interest  of  the  Crown  and  of  the 
English  and  Scotch  colonies ;  and  an  era  of  despotic  rule  is 
marked  by  the  perfidy  of  Charles  I,  by  Strafford's  tyranny,  by 
the  attempt  to  confiscate  wholesale,  by  mere  arbitrary  power. 
Yet  civilisation  did,  to  some  extent,  make  real  progress  in 
those  days,  especially  in  Ulster;  and  the  organising  genius  of 
Strafford  and  his  firm  and  equal  government  unquestionably 
caused  material  prosperity  to  advance. 

In  the  second  phase  the  seeds  of  evil  bear  their  natural  fruit: 


v.]     From  the  death  of  Elizabeth  to  the  Restoration.      159 

the  rising  of  the  Celts  of  Ulster  in  1641,  to  be  distinctly  traced 
to  the  spoliation  of  their  lands,  and  the  defection  of  the  old 
Catholic  Englishry,  mainly  due  to  the  wrongs  done  to  their 
faith,  lead  to  a  murderous  civil  war.  In  this  the  power  of 
England  is  shaken  for  a  time;  Catholic  Ireland,  divided 
against  herself,  defies  Protestant  England  and  keeps  her  in 
dread  of  invasion  at  a  most  critical  time ;  but  after  a  struggle 
protracted  for  years,  she  succumbs,  largely  owing  to  her  own 
disunion.  Cromwell  then  subdues  Ireland  as  she  was  never 
subdued  before;  he  confiscates  millions  of  acres  of  Irish 
land ;  he  makes  a  conquering  army  of  Puritan  soldiers  lords  of 
a  Catholic  people  vanquished  and  abhorred;  he  establishes 
Protestant  Ascendency,  and  its  correlative.  Catholic  subjection, 
in  Ireland,  in  the  very  worst  form.  Nevertheless  Cromwell's 
Irish  policy  had  a  good  side ;  it  secured  order  and  a  kind  of 
social  progress :  above  all  it  prefigured  the  Union. 

Three  great  facts  appear  with  peculiar  clearness  through 
the  troubled  confusion  of  this  whole  period;  they  should  be 
steadily  kept  in  mind.  Firstly,  the  annihilation  of  old  Celtic 
usage,  especially  of  the  tribal  land  system,  the  substitution  of 
English  law,  the  confiscations  of  the  reigns  of  the  two  first 
Stuarts  and  of  the  rule  of  Cromwell,  the  establishment  of  the 
dominant  Anglican  Church,  and  the  ascendency  secured  for 
English  and  Scotch  settlers — all  this  was  a  continuation  of  the 
Tudor  scheme  of  forcing  foreign  institutions  on  the  Irish 
people.  Part  of  this  policy  was,  in  a  sense,  successful ;  part 
was  unquestionably  well  meant,  but  much  of  it  was  due  to  sheer 
cupidity,  to  bad  statecraft,  to  the  passioris  of  conquest;  but  its 
results  in  the  main  were  to  make  the  great  mass  of  Irishmen 
more  hostile  to  England  than  they  had  ever  been,  and  to 
aggravate  the  divisions  and  strife  of  races  in  Ireland.  Secondly, 
the  interference  of  the  Crown  with  the  Irish  Parliament,  and 
the  arbitrary  conduct  of  the  Long  Parliament  in  imposing  on 
Ireland  measures   of  its  own,   did  infinite  mischief  of  many 


1 5o  Ireland.  [Chap. 

kinds ;  the  growth  of  constitutional  government  was  stopped ; 
undue  favour  was  shown  to  a  ruling  caste,  which  felt  that  it 
was  given  a  free  hand  to  oppress;  the  foundations  of  many  evils 
in  the  future  were  laid.  The  third  and  most  striking  feature  of 
the  period  was  this — the  religious  discords  of  Ireland  became 
suddenly  more  intense  than  they  had  ever  been ;  and  in  the 
struggle,  which  was  the  result,  they  seem  to  make  other  divi- 
sions less,  nay  to  efface  them  to  some  extent.  In  the  Civil 
War,  from  1641  to  1650,  the  name  of  Protestant  and  Catholic 
separated  the  hostile  camps  more  thoroughly  than  that  of 
Saxon  and  Celt;  but  the  distinction  of  religion,  it  must  be 
borne  in  mind,  largely  coincided  with  that  of  race,  and  had 
only  lately  acquired  a  special  prominence  of  its  own.  Cromwell 
made  this  distinction  extraordinarily  wide;  the  Protestant 
Irish,  in  his  eyes,  were  the  sheep  to  be  protected  in  the  fold ; 
the  Catholic  Irish  were  the  goats  to  be  hunted  away  and 
destroyed,  and  difference  of  race  was  of  little  moment. 
Religion  appears  from  this  time  forward  to  be  the  determining 
force  in  Irish  History,  which  seems  to  revolve,  as  it  were,  around 
the  destinies  of  an  Ireland  of  opposite  faiths  ;  and  yet  perhaps 
if  not  so  plainly  manifest  the  distinction  of  race  had  after  all 
the  most  potent  influence. 

The  progress  of  English  power  in  Ireland,  in  this  period, 
bears  the  character  it  bore  in  the  age  of  Elizabeth;  it  was 
often  marked  with  guile  and  most  atrocious  deeds;  and  the 
wrongs  of  Ireland  were  many  and  cruel.  Yet  parallels  to 
them  may  be  found  in  contemporaneous,  even  in  more  recent 
history;  this  must  be  taken  into  account  in  a  fair  review  of  the 
subject.  Most  of  the  confiscations  which  took  place  in  Ire- 
land, from  the  days  of  Mountjoy  to  those  of  Cromwell,  were 
iniquitous  in  the  extreme;  but  it  was  the  time  of  the  Edicts  of 
Restitution,  and  of  the  rapine  carried  out  in  Germany  with 
even  less  pretence  to  justice.  The  perfidy  of  James  I  and  of 
Charles  I,  and   Strafford's   tyranny  in   Irish   affairs,  resemble 


v.]     From  the  death  of  Elizabeth  to  the  Restoration.      i6i 

parts  of  the  stern  policy  of  Richelieu  in  France;  all  were  alike 
instances  of  the  abuse  of  the  rights  claimed  by  kings  in  the 
seventeenth  century.  What  was  done  at  Drogheda  and 
Wexford  was  less  horrible  than  what  was  done  at  the  sack  of 
Magdeburg;  Cromwell  may  have  thought  of  what  had  been 
charged  against  Tilly.  The  Cromvvellian  conquest  of  Ireland 
had  much  in  common  with  the  Republican  conquest  of  La 
Vendee;  in  both  cases  a  community  relatively  small  rushed  to 
arms  against  a  great  nation,  which  claimed  its  allegiance,  at  a 
grave  crisis;  in  both  cases  the  vengeance  inflicted  was  frightful. 
The  peace  given  to  Ireland  by  Cromwell,  indeed,  was  very 
different  from  the  peace  given  by  Bonaparte  to  La  Vende'e; 
but,  in  a  matter  like  this,  the  standard  of  opinion  in  the 
seventeenth  century  completely  differed  from  that  of  the 
nineteenth,  especially  in  a  religious  contest.  For  the  rest, 
the  aversion  and  contempt,  due  to  causes  before  referred  to, 
with  which  Ireland  inspired  Englishmen,  were  naturally  in- 
creased in  this  period;  and  her  divisions,  her  weakness,  her 
wretched  state,  contributed,  as  before,  to  bring  on  her  much 
that  she  suffered.  "A  people,"  it  has  been  truly  said,  "divided 
internally,  and  without  the  element  of  political  organisation, 
invites  the  sword  of  the  conqueror  \" 

The  Irish  community  was  being  now  cast  into  a  mould  of 
usage,  of  life,  of  relations,  which,  though  modified  to  a  very 
great  extent,  has  never  yet  been  completely  effaced.  In  every- 
thing, but  especially  in  the  land,  and  in  by  far  the  greatest 
part  of  the  country,  a  ruling  and  foreign  Protestant  caste  were 
made  masters  of  a  conquered  Catholic  people ;  each  was 
divided  from  the  other  by  the  most  unhappy  memories. 
Protestant  Ascendency  and  Catholic  Subjection  were  giving 
the  social  structure,  so  to  speak,  its  form;  the  distinction  of 
religion,  we  repeat,  seemed  to  have  replaced  the  old  distinction 

^  Gardiner's  History  of  the  Cominomvealth  and  Protectorate,  I.  176. 
M.  I.  II 


1 62  Ireland.  [Chap.  v. 

of  race,  though  perhaps  this  was  in  appearance  only.  The 
condition  of  things  thus  evolved  was  pregnant  with  evils,  and 
has  been  attended  with  calamitous  results;  and  though  it  had 
had  its  origin  in  the  past,  it  was  in  a  great  degree  brought 
about  by  the  Cromwellian  Conquest.  The  despotism  of 
Cromwell  was  a  bad  government;  but  it  produced,  in  Ireland, 
some  good  fruits;  and  had  it  been  gradually  made  to  conform 
to  justice,  to  wisdom,  to  reason,  to  right,  it  might  have 
established  an  order  of  things  which  would  have  been  its 
vindication  in  the  sight  of  history.  This,  however,  was  not  to 
be  the  course  of  events  in  Ireland;  light  was  not  yet  to  shine 
on  her  dark  destiny. 


CHAPTER   VI. 

FROM   THE   RESTORATION   TO   THE   CAPITULATION 

OF   LIMERICK. 

Contrast  between  England  and  Ireland  at  the  Restoration.  Confusion  and 
disorder  in  Ireland.  Multiplicity  of  claims  arising  from  the  land. 
The  policy  of  the  King  dictated  by  Clarendon.  The  Church  restored. 
Presbyterian  ministers  expelled.  Lavish  grants  of  land.  The  decla- 
ration of  the  King  as  to  the  land.  The  Acts  of  Settlement  and 
Explanation,  Wrong  done  to  many  Catholic  owners.  Injustice  of 
the  arrangement  as  a  whole.  The  Cromwellian  Conquest  and 
settlement  in  the  main  confirmed.  The  results.  Protestant  as- 
cendency and  Catholic  subjection  made  permanent.  The  Vice- 
royalty  of  Ormond.  Restrictions  on  the  commerce  of  Ireland.  The 
Viceroyalties  of  Lord  Berkeley  and  Lord  Essex.  Ireland  compara- 
tively prosperous  and  free  from  trouble  at  the  death  of  Charles  II. 
Accession  of  James  II.  What  his  Irish  policy  ought  to  have  been. 
His  views  on  Irish  affairs.  Clarendon  made  Lord  Lieutenant. 
Tyrconnell  possesses  real  power.  He  transforms  the  army  in  Ireland. 
He  is  made  Deputy.  The  military  and  civil  power  handed  over  to  the 
Catholics.  Rising  of  the  Irishry.  The  Revolution  of  1688.  Attitude 
of  Catholic  Ireland.  The  Irish  spring  to  arms.  The  colonists  driven 
into  Ulster.  Enniskillen  and  Londonderry.  The  siege  of  London- 
deiTy.  Heroism  of  the  defence.  The  siege  raised.  The  Battle  of 
Newton  Butler.  The  Irish  Parliament  of  1689.  Character  of  its 
measures.  These  have  been  much  misrepresented.  Invasion  of 
Ireland  by  Schomberg.  He  is  compelled  to  retreat  into  winter 
quarters.  William  III  takes  the  field.  The  Battle  of  the  Boyne. 
Fine  conduct  of  the  Irish  horse.     Defeat  of  the  Irish  army  and  flight 

II 2 


164  '         Ireland.  [Chap. 

of  James.  The  first  siege  of  Limerick.  Fine  exploit  of  Sarsfield. 
William  raises  the  siege.  Marlborough  takes  Cork  and  Kinsale. 
Great  results  of  this  success.  Ginkle  takes  Athlone.  Battle  of 
Aghrim.  Defeat  of  the  Irish  army.  The  second  siege  and  the 
capitulation  of  Limerick.  The  Articles.  Departure  to  France  of  a 
large  part  of  the  Irish  army.     Reflections. 

The  contrast,  continually  on  the  increase,  which  England  and 
Ireland  always  presented,  was  more  conspicuous  at  the 
Restoration  than  at  any  previous  time.  In  England  the 
Monarchy  and  the  Church  had  fallen ;  but  the  civil  war  was 
not  a  death  struggle ;  the  supremacy  of  the  law  had  been 
maintained ;  the  type  of  civilised  life  had  not  been  broken  up  ; 
the  land  had  not  been  torn  from  its  owners  wholesale.  The 
condition  of  Ireland  was  altogether  different;  a  horrible  conflict 
of  races  and  faiths  had  been  prolonged  for  nearly  ten  years ; 
the  structure  of  society  had  been  overthrown ;  and  a  huge 
confiscation,  greater  than  any  other  of  the  kind,  had  seated  a 
Puritan  army  on  the  soil,  the  rulers  of  a  conquered  Catholic 
people.  On  the  return  of  Charles  II  to  the  throne  the  peace 
enforced  by  Cromwell  in  Ireland  ceased  ;  everything  became 
confusion,  disorder  and  trouble ;  and,  at  the  prospect  of  a 
change  in  the  existing  order  of  things,  there  were  wild  stirrings 
of  fear,  of  hope  and  of  passion.  This  movement  was  chiefly 
associated  with  the  land — thrown,  it  was  said,  "like  a  stag  to 
a  ravening  pack  of  hounds";  and  the  new  Government  was 
beset  by  many  kinds  of  claimants,  eager  to  retain  what  they 
had  already  won,  or  to  recover  possessions  taken  from  them  in 
the  Revolutionary  period  now  come  to  an  end.  The  Crom- 
weUian  soldiery  laid  their  hands  on  their  swords  and  vowed 
they  would  keep  what  the  Lord  had  bestowed;  the  "ad- 
venturers "  were  equally  bold  and  tenacious.  But  Royalist 
Protestants,  who  had  served  with  Ormond,  and  Catholic 
Confederates,  who  had  been  in  arms  for  the  King,  insisted  on 
being  restored  to  the  lands  of  which  they  had  been  deprived 


vi.J   From  the  Restoration  to  the  L  imerick  Capitulation.   1 65 

by  Cromwell ;  leaders  of  the  Celtic  Irisbry  made  the  same 
demand ;  and  Royalist  officers  sought  to  obtain  compensation, 
in  land,  for  arrears  of  pay.  The  Anglican  Church,  too,  had 
lost  its  estates ;  its  episcopate  seems  to  have  almost  dis- 
appeared, though  its  ritual  and  worship  had  not  been 
proscribed;  and  the  Presbyterian  clergy  of  the  Scotch  colonists 
had,  in  Ulster,  and  even  in  the  other  provinces,  encroached  on 
its  benefices,  to  a  certain  extent. 

The  task  before  Charles  in  Ireland  was  difficult  in  the 
extreme ;  to  do  justice  was  perhaps  impossible.  The  con- 
duct of  the  King,  however,  reflected  the  passions  of  the 
hour,  and  was  marked  by  the  favouritism  and  the  want  of 
good  faith  characteristic  of  his  House.  A  considerable  part 
of  the  Cromwellian  forfeitures  had  not  yet  passed  out  of  the 
hands  of  the  state ;  the  Anglican  Church  regained  its 
possessions,  including  its  large  revenue  of  tithes;  and  its 
hierarchy  was  replaced  in  its  old  splendour.  The  Presbyterian 
ministers  were  expelled  from  the  glebes  and  houses  they  had 
obtained ;  a  test  was  ere  long  imposed  on  them,  resembling 
that  whicli  had  been  imposed  on  Catholics — (Nonconformist 
persecution  prevailed  in  England) — this  compelled  a  certain 
number  to  leave  Ireland ;  and  though  not  the  cause  of  much 
present  mischief,  was  ultimately  to  lead  to  grave  evils.  At 
the  same  time  large  grants  of  land  were  made  to  the  Duke  of 
York,  to  Ormond,  and  to  other  friends  of  the  King;  and 
several  of  the  great  nobles  of  the  old  Catholic  Englishry 
recovered  the  estates  of  which  they  had  been  despoiled. 
Many  thousands  of  acres  were  thus  bestowed,  without  regard  to 
equity  or  sound  policy;  but  Charles  had  been  persuaded,  or 
had  persuaded  himself,  that,  with  dexterous  management,  a 
sufficient  fund  of  land  would  remain  to  satisfy  the  great  crowd 
of  claimants.  In  this,  as  in  all  other  matters,  Clarendon  was, 
for  the  present,  his  chief  adviser;  like  nine-tenths  of  his 
counlrymen,  Clarendon  hated  the  Catholic  Irish  with  intense 


1 66  Ireland.  [Chap. 

hatred,  and  wished  to  uphold  the  Protestant  and  colonial 
caste  in  Ireland ;  and  the  King  probably  shared  this  feeling,  at 
least  had  no  desire  to  be  a  Don  Quixote,  and  to  show  Irish 
sympathies  that  would  offend  Englishmen.  It  was  announced 
that  the  "  English  interest "  was  to  be  maintained  in  Ireland ; 
and  the  Government  issued  a  Declaration,  arranging  the 
claims  to  the  Irish  land  upon  this  basis.  The  "  adventurers  " 
and  the  Cromwellian  soldiers  were,  with  some  exceptions,  to 
retain  their  possessions;  certain  classes  of  Protestant  owners 
were  to  regain  their  estates ;  and  some  lands  were  allotted  to 
Royalist  officers,  in  discharge  of  their  pay.  These  demands 
would  obviously  absorb  the  great  bulk  of  the  land ;  but  there 
remained  the  large  body  of  the  Irish  Catholic  owners,  perhaps 
4000  or  5000  persons,  and  what  was  this  order  of  men  to 
receive  ?  An  expedient  was  devised,  which  was  not  the  least 
base  of  the  many  devised  by  Stuart  statecraft.  The  Catholic 
owners  were  to  be  restored ;  but  their  restoration  was  not  to 
take  place  until  they  had  satisfied  a  test  of  "  innocence," 
severe  as  that  of  Cromwell's  "  constant  affection,"  and  so 
framed  that  few,  it  was  thought,  could  get  through  its  meshes. 
It  was  nothing  to  Charles  that  he  had  made  solemn  pledges  to 
them  on  many  occasions  ;  they  were  a  weak  and  inconvenient 
class  of  "  Irish  Papists,"  to  be  disposed  of  by  one  means  or 
another. 

The  Irish  Parliament  had  by  this  time  been  restored  as 
part  of  the  old  Constitution  of  the  land ;  it  was  to  give  the 
Declaration  the  sanction  of  law.  But  it  was  full  of  Protestant, 
even  of  Puritan  zealots  ;  scarcely  a  Catholic,  in  fact,  had  a 
seat  in  it ;  and  an  outcry  arose  against  the  proposed  arrange- 
ment, denounced  as  too  favourable  to  the  subject  race  and 
faith.  The  discussion  was  transferred  to  the  Council  at  White- 
hall, which  kept  a  strict  hold,  under  Poynings'  Law,  on  the 
assembly  in  Dublin,  in  this  matter ;  but  though  angry  clamour 
was  frequent  and  loud,  little  change  was  made  in  the  original 


VI.]  From  the  Restoration  to  the  L  inter ick  Capitulation.   1 6y 

terms,  and  an  Act,  known  as  the  Act  of  Settlement,  was 
passed,  confirming  the  distribution  of  the  Irish  land,  of  which 
we  have  seen  the  main  outlines.  Meanwhile,  however,  an 
incident  had  occurred  which  threw  everything  into  confusion 
again.  A  Commission  had  been  appointed  to  decide  who 
"were  innocent  Papists";  and,  strange  to  say,  many  more 
Catholic  owners  contrived  to  satisfy  the  iniquitous  test  of 
"innocence"  than  Charles  and  his  advisers  had  deemed 
possible.  The  "  English  interest "  in  Ireland  broke  out  into 
wrath;  an  insurrection  was  threatened  by  the  CromwelHan 
soldiers;  the  Castle  was  for  some  time  in  danger.  After 
months  of  delay  and  bickerings  of  all  kinds  a  compromise  was 
at  last  effected ;  an  Act  of  "  Explanation  "  was  added  to  the 
Act  of  Settlement.  The  adventurers  and  the  soldiers  were 
forced  or  induced  to  surrender  a  third  part  of  their  lands;  the 
Catholic  owners  adjudged  "innocent"  were  reinstated  ;  and  a 
few  were  restored  by  the  special  favour  of  the  King.  But  the 
great  body  of  the  Catholic  owners,  from  3000  to  4000  in 
number,  were  not  allowed  to  try  to  make  proof  of  "innocence"; 
they  were  shut  out  from  all  hope  of  relief;  they  were  deprived 
of  their  ancestral  estates  for  ever,  an  act  of  the  grossest  and 
most  cruel  injustice.  Many  of  the  injured  class  carried  their 
swords  to  the  Continent,  and  became  another  contingent  of 
exiles  eager  to  avenge  their  wrongs  on  the  English  name. 

The  settlement  of  the  Irish  land  thus  effected  was 
ahke  unwise  and  unjustifiable.  The  dominant  Church  of  a 
caste  regained  all  that  it  had  lost;  courtiers  and  favourites 
obtained  possessions  to  which  they  had  no  claim;  the 
Cromwellian  forfeitures,  immense  and  unjust,  were  to  a 
considerable  extent  ratified;  thousands  of  despoiled  owners 
were  deprived  of  their  rights  ;  the  seeds  were  thickly  sown  of  a 
harvest  of  evil.  The  most  striking  feature  certainly  of  the 
scheme,  and  that  attended  by  the  most  lasting  results,  was  the 
confirmation,  in  a  very  great  degree,  of  the  huge  confiscation 


1 68  Ireland.  [Chap. 

due  to  the  sword  of  Cromwell.  The  two  Acts  of  Settlement, 
as  they  may  be  called,  permanently  transferred  to  Protestant 
English  owners,  for  the  most  part  of  the  Puritan  faith,  at  least 
a  fourth  part  of  the  land  of  Ireland;  and  these  were  surrounded 
by  a  Catholic  people  reduced  to  serfdom,  but  retaining  the 
Celtic  memory  of  the  past.  This  state  of  things  was  to  prove 
enduring;  but  Cromwell's  project  of  colonising  the  Irish  land, 
effectually  and  on  an  enormous  scale,  failed,  as  projects  of  the 
kind  had  failed  before.  The  number  of  the  settlers  was,  from 
the  first,  too  small;  the  Cromwellian  soldiers  sold  their 
allotments  wholesale;  most  of  the  "adventurers"  were  ab- 
sentees, adding  thus  to  a  list  already  too  large;  the  colonists 
who  remained  sank,  in  thousands  of  instances,  into  the  mass 
of  the  Irishry  in  their  midst,  a  transformation  which  had  been 
seen  through  centuries.  The  ultimate  effect  of  the  Cromwellian 
Conquest  was  to  plant  in  the  land  of  Ireland  three  or  four 
thousand  owners,  alien  in  race  and  faith  from  the  occupiers  of 
the  soil,  and  separated  from  them  by  the  worst  traditions-^. 

The  confirmation,  however,  of  the  Cromwellian  forfeitures 
gave  to  the  Protestant  Ascendency,  w^hich,  we  have  said,  had 
before  this  time  been  established  in  power,  a  great  addition  of 
strength  and  influence.  The  Protestant  English  and  Scotch 
colonists  were  now  the  possessors  of  perhaps  three-fourths  of 
the  soil ;  a  fourth  only  was  left  to  the  old  owners,  the  Catholic 
Englishry  and  the  Catholic  Celts ;  and  beneath  these  were  the 
conquered  Catholic  Irishry,  five-sixths  of  the  population  of  the 
country.  In  by  far  the  greatest  part  of  Ireland,  therefore,  a 
dominant  caste,  distinct  in  blood  and  religion,  and  hostile  to 
the  mass  of  the  people,  had  been  made  owners  of  nearly  all 
the  land  ;  the  subject  race  had  sunk  into  mere  occupiers.    The 

^  Mr  Lecky's  History  of  England  in  the  Eighteenth  Century,  vol.  II. 
chap.  6,  contains  an  adniirable  sketch  of  the  Cromwellian  confiscations  and 
their  results.  See  also  Mr  Prendergast's  Cronrivellian  Settlement  of  Ireland^ 
and  Lord  Edmond  Fitzmaurice's  Life  of  Sir  William  Petty, 


VI.]  From  the  Restoration  to  the  Limerick  Capitulation.   1 69 

only  exception  to  this  state  of  things  was  found  in  the  colonised 
parts  of  Ulster,  where  the  settlers  were  numerous,  and  of  all 
classes.  The  social  relations,  connected  with  the  land,  which 
would  grow  out  of  this  state  of  affairs  would  necessarily  bear 
the  marks  of  their  origin  ;  from  this  time  forward,  agrarian 
discontent,  occasionally  associated  with  rebellious  movements, 
becomes  a  marked  feature  of  Irish  History.  But  if  Protestant 
Ascendency,  as  we  have  said,  was  most  distinctly  apparent  in 
the  land,  it  had  become  established  hi  every  part  of  the 
political  and  social  life  of  Ireland,  almost  as  completely  as 
under  the  rule  of  Cromwell.  The  Irish  Catholic  Church, 
indeed,  and  its  priesthood  were  not  persecuted  as  they  had 
lately  been ;  and  after  the  Restoration,  the  Catholic  faith  was 
usually  tolerated,  even  protected.  But  the  Irish  Parliament 
was  composed  of  Protestants;  Protestants,  as  a  rule,  filled 
every  office  of  trust ;  Catholics,  except  at  rare  intervals  of 
time,  were  excluded  from  the  administration  of  the  state,  and 
even  from  municipal  offices.  Ireland  was  thus  finally  separated 
into  the  two  divisions,  to  which  we  have  so  often  referred ; 
Protestant  Ascendency  was  embodied  in  the  English  and 
Scotch  Protestants,  a  caste  possessing  almost  supreme  power ; 
Catholic  Subjection  was  seen  in  a  vanquished  Catholic  people. 
The  distinction,  too,  between  the  old  Englishry  and  the  Irish 
Celts  had  become  much  less  marked ;  both  races  had  been 
involved  in  a  common  wreck  of  fortune. 

The  order  of  things  which  the  Restoration  left  standing  in 
Ireland  was  unnatural,  and  was  certain  to  lead  to  ills  in  tlie 
future.  For  the  present,  however,  the  land  was  at  peace ; 
the  strong  hand  of  Cromwell  was  still  felt;  after  a  brief 
interval  of  passing  trouble  Protestant  Ireland  saw  its  domi- 
nation secured ;  Catholic  Ireland  acquiesced,  brooding  only  on 
its  wrongs.  This  period  of  repose,  broken  by  faint  stirrings  of 
unrest,  disorder,  and  smothered  discontent,  signs  of  passions 
smouldering  beneath  the  surface,  continued  for  nearly  twenty- 


I/O  Irehvid.  [Chap. 

five  years,  and  was  perhaps  the  longest  of  its  kind  that  had  yet 
been  seen.  The  government,  during  the  greater  part  of  this 
time,  was  placed  in  the  well-tried  hands  of  Ormond,  created 
a  duke  by  Charles  II,  and  perhaps  the  foremost  subject  of 
the  Crown ;  his  Viceroyalty  was  one  of  no  little  interest. 
Ormond  was  not  a  statesman  of  a  high  order,  but  he  was  an 
administrator  of  considerable  powers ;  and  if  feeling  and 
interest  made  him  incline  to  the  side  of  Protestant  Ascendency 
somewhat  too  much,  he  had  none  of  the  English  contempt 
for  Irishmen ;  he  was  a  true  and  noble-minded  Irishman  at 
heart,  he  had  a  genuine  and  a  patriotic  love  for  his  country. 
His  conduct  in  peace  had  some  points  in  common  with  his 
conduct  during  the  protracted  Civil  War.  A  Protestant  him- 
self, and  a  loyal  subject,  he  upheld  the  "Protestant  interest," 
now  supreme  in  Ireland;  and  he  refused  to  listen  to  complaints 
against  the  Acts  of  Settlement — they  were,  in  his  view, 
necessary  to  maintain  the  present  order  of  things — a  resolve 
not  surprising  in  his  case,  for  they  had  made  him  the  master 
of  large  estates.  He  had  little  sympathy,  too,  with  leaders  of 
the  Irish  Celts ;  he  had  not  forgotten  their  attitude  in  the  war ; 
they  had  repudiated  his  advice  on  the  Acts  of  Settlement;  and, 
not  improbably,  he  felt  towards  them  as  the  great  nobles  of 
the  old  Englishry  had  felt  for  ages.  Nor  did  he  do  much  to 
mitigate  the  state  of  Catholic  subjection  he  found  established ; 
he  did  not  use  his  imniense  influence  to  introduce  Catholics 
into  the  Irish  Parliament ;  he  left  Protestant  Ascendency  to 
rule,  throughout  Ireland,  in  the  Municipal  Bodies,  which 
especially  controlled  the  petty  boroughs  of  James ;  he  did  not 
admit  Catholics  to  offices  of  trust;  he  did  not  dispense,  as  had 
been  often  done  before,  with  the  religious  tests  to  which  they 
were  exposed.  Nevertheless  Ormond  was  a  good  governor, — 
wise,  moderate,  upright,  strictly  just — within  the  limits  of  the 
system  made  to  his  hand ;  he  maintained  order  and  law  with 
success ;  like  Strafford  he  kept  petty  tyrants  under ;  he  won 


VI.]  From  the  Restoration  to  the  L  imcrick  Capitulation.   1 7 1 

the  esteem  even  of  the  oppressed  Catholics.  Above  all,  while 
he  upheld  the  Anglican  Church,  he  gave  its  Catholic  rival  real 
freedom ;  its  clergy,  rescued  from  the  proscription  of  the 
Cromwellian  era,  and  allowed  to  do  their  offices  among  their 
flocks,  acknowledged  him  as  their  benefactor  and  friend. 

This  policy  was  not  profound  or  far-sighted,  but  it  was 
wise,  prudent,  and  perhaps  suited  to  the  time.  In  other 
respects  Ormond  was  more  free  to  act ;  his  administrative 
capacity  was  conspicuously  shown.  True  to  the  example  of 
all  the  best  Viceroys,  who  felt  that  Ireland  required  a  strong 
central  government,  he  greatly  increased  and  improved  the 
army ;  and  he  set  on  foot  a  militia  in  the  Irish  counties  which 
performed  the  functions  of  a  good  local  police.  By  these 
means  he  was  enabled  to  put  down  every  attempt  to  disturb 
the  public  peace,  to  make  his  government  respected  by  all 
orders  of  men,  to  secure  obedience  in  a  country  ever  distracted 
by  savage  animosities  and  feuds,  even  if  it  seemed  for  the 
moment  at  rest.  But  the  most  striking  feature  of  Ormond's 
rule  was  his  unremitting  and  successful  zeal  in  promoting 
everything  that  could  advance  the  prosperity  and  material 
wealth  of  the  country ;  "  he  trode  here,"  he  said,  "in  the  steps 
of  Strafford";  and  he  was  worthy  of  the  great  man,  in  this 
respect,  his  model.  He  encouraged  the  trade  of  Ireland  in 
many  ways ;  he  paid  much  attention  to  her  agriculture ;  he 
stimulated  the  manufacture  of  linen,  nearly  abandoned  during 
the  late  civil  war;  he  gave  a  remarkable  impulse  to  the 
manufacture  of  wool,  already  a  promising  Irish  industry;  he 
introduced  machinery  of  many  kinds  from  England.  Or- 
mond, too,  was  almost  the  first  projector  of  what  may  be 
called  Public  Works  in  Ireland ;  and  he  was  an  excellent 
patron  of  arts  and  learning.  He  founded  a  great  Hospital 
for  soldiers,  like  that  at  Greenwich ;  the  University  of  Dublin 
owed  much  to  him ;  he  re-established  a  schooF,  near  his  an- 
^  Kilkenny  College,  originally  a  foundation  of  the  Cathedral  of  St  Canice. 


172  Ireland.  [Chap. 

cestral    town,  Kilkenny,  which  was   soon  to  form  the  young 
minds  of  Swift  and  of  Berkeley. 

Under  the  government  of  Ormond,  and,  indeed,  through 
the  whole  of  the  reign  of  Charles  II,  Ireland  made  decided 
material  progress.  The  existing  order  of  things  seemed  firmly 
established ;  the  dominant  caste  made  civilisation  spread  ;  the 
wealth  of  the  country  largely  increased ;  something  like 
prosperity  appeared  again.  Dublin  grew  into  a  city  of  50,000 
souls ;  a  few  of  the  seaport  towns  revived ;  Belfast  began  to 
show  signs  of  thriving ;  there  was  a  real  advance  in  husbandry 
and  trade.  Macaulay  has  described  in  picturesque  language 
Petty's  settlement  in  the  wilds  of  Kerry  ;  and  doubtless  there 
were  other  settlements  of  the  kind,  oases  in  rude  and  half- 
peopled  deserts.  This  progress,  however,  met  a  sudden 
check,  the  first  of  many  checks  of  the  kind,  attended  ultimately 
with  evil  results.  In  conformity  with  the  selfish  legislation  of 
the  day,  Ireland  w^as  excluded  from  the  Navigation  Acts  of 
England;  she  was  thus  almost  shut  out  from  trade  with  the 
colonies ;  and  her  ship-building  industry,  in  some  degree, 
suffered.  These  restrictions  probably  were  as  yet  not  much 
felt,  in  the  case  of  a  poor  and  backward  country ;  but  another 
restriction  did  real  injury.  A  period  of  agricultural  distress  in 
England  was  followed  by  a  rapid  decline  in  rents;  and  the 
English  Parliament,  in  consequence,  forbade  the  import  of 
animals  of  most  kinds,  and  even  of  meat,  from  Ireland,  the 
principal  sources  of  her  still  scanty  wealth.  This  prohibition 
aroused  the  anger  of  Petty,  a  keen  and  able  economic 
thinker,  who  had  feathered  his  nest  through  the  Cromwellian 
forfeitures;  he  compared  it  to  the  colonial  tyranny  of  Spain ^ 
Ireland,  nevertheless,  continued  to  advance,  in  spite  of  the 
loss  of  a  most  important  market ;  her  woollen  manufacture 
especially  throve.  The  time  had  not  yet  come  when  she  was 
to  learn  how  mischievous  commercial  restrictions  could  prove. 

^  Life  of  Sir  William  Petty,  p.  143. 


VI.]  From  the  Restoration  to  the  L  inter ick  Capitulation.   173 

There  were  two  interludes  to  Ormond's  government ;  they 
were  significant,  in  some  degree,  of  the  future.  Lord  Berkeley 
of  Stratton  was  made  Lord  Lieutenant  in  1670;  the  appoint- 
ment was  part  and  parcel  of  the  French  policy  inaugurated 
by  the  Treaty  of  Dover,  which  involved  concessions  to  all 
Catholic  subjects  of  Charles.  Catholics  were  admitted,  in 
Ireland,  to  different  offices ;  the  Mass  was  celebrated  in 
Dublin  with  extraordinary  pomp ;  an  attempt  was  made  to 
introduce  Catholics  into  Corporate  Bodies ;  an  outcry  was 
raised  against  the  Acts  of  Settlement.  This  policy  aroused 
the  indignation  and  fear  of  the  Protestant  caste  in  all  parts  of 
the  country ;  but  it  was  reversed  when  Danby  became 
Minister,  and  the  French  aUiance  was  denounced  at  West- 
minster. Lord  Berkeley  was  replaced  by  Lord  Essex; 
Protestant  Ascendency  was  completely  restored  in  Ireland ; 
and  the  reports  that  had  been  spread  about  "a  second  1641," 
and  an  "  Irish  St  Bartholomew,"  proved  wholly  groundless. 
Ormond  was  before  long  in  office  again ;  he  steadily  followed 
the  course  of  conduct  of  which  we  have  given  a  brief 
description.  He  kept  the  hostile  races  and  faiths  of  Ireland 
at  peace ;  maintained  order  with  a  firm  but  kind  hand ;  and 
continued  to  make  earnest  and  successful  efforts  to  improve 
the  material  state  of  the  island.  It  is  remarkable  that  during 
the  last  agitated  years  of  the  chequered  reign  of  Charles  II 
Ireland  was  apparently  in  deep  repose,  illusory  as  the  appear- 
ance was.  The  furious  passions  engendered  by  the  Popish 
plot  led,  indeed,  to  one  most  unhappy  event :  Oliver  Plunkett, 
the  Catholic  Archbishop  of  Armagh,  was  charged — a  bar- 
barous falsehood — with  a  treasonable  design  to  stir  up  a 
rebellion  in  Ireland,  and  was  executed  at  Tyburn  after  a 
mock  trial ;  but  this  was  the  only  Irish  victim  of  Gates  and  his 
crew,  while  noble  blood  flowed  freely  on  English  scaffolds. 
While  Shaftesbury  was  shaking  the  state  to  its  basis,  while 
England  was  being  convulsed  by  maddened  factions,  Ireland 


174  Ireland.  [Chap. 

remained  quiescent  under  Ormond's  rule,  though  Shaftesbury 
had  tried  to  make  her  a  pawn  in  his  game. 

The  cahii  prevailing  in  Ireland  was  but  little  disturbed 
when  James  II  ascended  the  throne.  Faint  murmurs  were 
heard  from  the  Catholic  priesthood ;  petitions  against  the  Acts 
of  Settlement  were  preferred ;  there  was  some  agitation  in  the 
ranks  of  the  dominant  race.  But  nothing  like  the  disorder  of 
the  Restoration  was  seen ;  the  active  leaders  of  the  Irishry 
had  disappeared ;  and  the  Irishry  remained  passive  in  the 
silent  endurance,  often  characteristic  of  the  Celtic  nature, 
before  it  breaks  out  into  a  burst  of  passion.  Had  James  been 
a  statesman  of  real  parts,  had  a  Richelieu  or  a  Wolsey  been  in 
his  councils,  an  occasion  had  now  perhaps  presented  itself  to 
do  much  to  settle  the  affairs  of  Ireland,  possibly  even  to  give  a 
new  turn  to  her  history.  The  power  of  the  King  in  England 
was  great,  owing  to  the  strong  reaction  of  the  last  few  years ; 
his  authority  in  Ireland  was  very  large ;  in  every  part  of  his 
dominions  he  had  no  common  influence.  In  these  circum- 
stances a  wise  and  able  ruler  might  conceivably  have  wrought 
an  effectual  change  in  the  dangerous  and  false  state  of  things 
in  Ireland  ;  have  made  Protestant  Ascendency  less  harsh,  and 
Catholic  Subjection  less  painful ;  have  in  some  measure 
smoothed  away  the  lines  that  separated  hostile  races  and 
faiths;  above  all  have  tried  to  conciliate  by  doing  justice. 
There  was  very  httle  in  the  mere  letter  of  the  law^  to  exclude 
Catholics  in  Ireland  from  offices  in  the  state,  from  the 
legislature,  from  municipal  rights ;  and  the  tests  in  their  way 
had  been  seldom  enforced   until  after  the  beginning  of  the 

1  Macaulay,  History  of  England,  II.  383,  ed.  1858,  note,  seems  to  think 
that  the  only  religious  test  imposed  on  Irish  Catholics  at  this  time  was  that 
created  by  the  old  Act  of  Supremacy  of  Elizabeth.  A  more  stringent  test 
was,  however,  imposed  by  the  17-18  Car.  2,  chap.  6,  though  it  seems  not 
to  have  been  often  enforced.  Irish  Catholics  at  this  period  were  not  so 
much  proscribed  by  law  as  by  the  force  of  Protestant  ascendency. 


VI.]  Fi'om  the  Restoration  to  the  L  iinei'ick  Capitiilatioji.   1 7  5 

seventeenth  century.  If  James  had  cautiously  ignored  these 
obstacles;  if  he  had  gradually  admitted  Irish  Catholics  into 
the  service  of  the  Government  and  the  administration  of 
affairs,  if  he  had  given  them  something  akin  to  civil  equality, 
the  Protestant  Irish  would  doubtless  have  made  angry  com- 
plaints, but  he  would  hardly  have  set  Englishmen  strongly 
against  him,  great  as  was  their  dislike  of  "Irish  Papists,"  or 
have  provoked  dangerous  opposition  at  Westminster.  The 
King,  however,  might  well  have  gone  further ;  it  was  essential 
to  place  landed  relations  in  Ireland  on  a  reasonably  sound 
and  natural  basis.  Ancient  confiscations  should  not  have  been 
touched ;  but  the  Cromwellian  confiscations  were  not  of  old 
date ;  they  were,  in  numberless  instances,  grossly  unjust ;  and 
the  Acts  of  Settlement  were  tainted  throughout  with  wrong. 
The  Catholic  owners,  despoiled  without  getting  a  hearing, 
ought  certainly  to  have  been  permitted  to  assert  their  rights ; 
and  those  who  had  been  pronounced  "  innocent,"  under  a 
legitimate  test,  might  have  been  indemnified  by  grants  of 
Crown  lands  in  England — Petty  actually  proposed  a  scheme 
of  the  kind* — or  by  grants  in  the  American  colonies.  As  for 
other  Catholic  owners  wrongfully  dispossessed,  their  estates 
had  been  obtained  at  a  nominal  price ;  and  their  present  pos- 
sessors might  have  been  rightly  asked  to  pay  the  state  a  larger 
part  of  their  real  value,  and  thus  to  create  a  fund  which  would 
have  afforded  the  old  owners  a  measure  of  relief.  By  these 
means  the  most  glaring  evils  in  the  land  system  of  Ireland 
would  have  been  partly  removed,  and  animosities  of  race  and 
faith  would  have  been  probably  lessened. 

James,  however,  was  in  no  sense  a  statesman ;  and  except 
Ormond,  whom  he  removed  from  his  post,  he  had  no  able 
counsellor  on  Irish  affairs.  His  views  respecting  Ireland  were 
for  a  time  uncertain ;  he  hesitated  before  he  committed  him- 
self to  a  policy  fatal  to  himself  and  his  House.     Like  all  the 

^  Life  of  Sir  William  Petty ^  p.  273. 


1/6  Ireland.  [Chap. 

Stuarls,  he  cared  little  about  his  Irish  subjects ;  he  had  much 
of  the  English  aversion  to  the  race ;  as  a  King  of  England  he 
felt  he  was  bound  to  support  the  Protestant  ^'English  interest." 
But  he  was  a  bigoted  Catholic,  on  the  other  hand ;  and, 
unlike  his  illustrious  grandfather,  Henry  IV,  he  was  ultimately 
to  show  that  he  thought  a  Mass  was  worth  a  great  deal  more 
than  a  Crown.  His  first  measures  for  Ireland  appeared 
moderate ;  he  appointed  Clarendon  Lord  Lieutenant,  with 
directions  to  uphold  the  Acts  of  Settlement,  but  to  admit 
Catholics  to  office  in  the  state ;  and  Clarendon,  though  an 
obsequious  courtier,  had  all  his  father's  contempt  for  Irishmen, 
and  was  decidedly  a  friend  of  the  ruling  Protestant  caste. 
Two  or  three  Catholics  were  admitted  to  the  Council  in 
Dublin ;  had  things  gone  no  further,  an  act  of  justice  would, 
in  the  eyes  of  History,  if  not  of  partisans,  have  excused  a 
technical  breach  of  the  law.  But  Clarendon  was  soon  made 
to  feel  that  he  was  not  a  real  governor.  The  command  of  the 
army  in  Ireland  had  been  placed  in  the  hands  of  Richard 
Talbot,  the  well-known  Tyrconnell;  and  if  Talbot's  faults 
have  perhaps  been  magnified,  he  was  certainly  a  rash  and 
intemperate  man,  a  CathoHc  of  the  most  extreme  type  and 
bitterly  hostile  to  the  Protestant  name  in  Ireland.  Talbot 
practically  thrust  the  Lord  Lieutenant  aside,  and  began  to  do 
acts  of  high-handed  power,  alike  reckless  and  of  evil  omen  to 
the  state.  He  disbanded  the  militia  formed  by  Ormond 
because  it  was  composed,  in  the  main,  of  Protestants ;  he 
dismissed  Protestant  officers  from  the  army  wholesale ;  he 
placed  Catholic  officers  in  their  stead ;  and  he  filled  the  ranks 
with  the  Catholic  Irishry.  It  was  his  boast,  and  it  soon 
became  evident,  that  the  power  of  the  sword  was  being 
transferred  from  the  dominant  to  the  subject  race  in  Ireland. 
Tyrconnell's  conduct  naturally  provoked  the  resentment 
of  the  classes  that  ruled  in  Ireland — an  alien  caste  hemmed  in 
on  all  sides  by  enemies.     But  anger  changed  into  consternation 


VI.]  From  the  Restoration  to  the  Limerick  Capitulation.   177 

and  dismay  when  the  news  arrived,  in  the  spring  of  1687, 
that  Clarendon  had  ceased  to  be  Lord  Lieutenant,  and  that 
Tyrconnell  had  been  made  Deputy.  James  had  now  embarked 
on  the  disastrous  course  which  was  soon  to  lead  to  the  ruin  of 
his  throne ;  and  there  can  be  no  doubt  that,  like  his  ill-fated 
father,  he  had  resolved  to  make  use  of  Catholic  Ireland  in  the 
attack  he  had  begun  on  Protestant  England.  He  had  in 
Tyrconnell  a  tool  to  his  hand ;  the  Deputy  instantly  effected 
a  violent  change  in  the  whole  order  of  affairs  in  Ireland, 
which  literally  set  everything  upside  down.  The  Irish  army 
was  increased  and  filled  with  Catholics ;  the  dominant 
Protestants  were  replaced  by  men  of  the  despised  race  and 
faith,  in  all  departments  of  the  state.  The  Bench  was  packed 
with  Catholic  Judges;  the  municipal  bodies  were  remodelled, 
and  made  CathoHc;  Cathohc  magistrates  and  sheriffs  were 
appointed  by  scores;  in  civil  administration  Catholics  were 
made  supreme.  The  result  was  such  as  has  often  been  seen, 
when  a  down-trodden  order  of  men  suddenly  acquire  power ; 
a  Catholic  ascendency  vehemently  avenged  the  wrongs  a 
Protestant  ascendency  had  done;  the  Protestants,  dominant 
but  yesterday,  suffered  gross  injuries,  in  every  relation  and 
walk  of  life.  Tyrconnell  ere  long  had  denounced  the  Acts  of 
Settlement,  which,  indeed,  had  ceased  to  protect  titles,  owing 
to  decisions  of  the  lately  made  Judges;  he  certainly  con- 
templated a  great  transfer  of  the  Irish  Land.  This  became 
the  signal  of  a  wide-spread  agrarian  rising ;  old  dispossessed 
owners  claimed  their  lands  again  ;  the  new  landlords  were 
unable  to  assert  their  rights ;  floods  of  the  infuriated  Irishry 
swept  away  Petty's  settlement  and  other  centres  of  industry  ; 
anarchy  ran  riot  over  whole  counties.  Ireland  wore  the  aspect 
of  France,  in  1789,  when  the  flames  of  many  a  chateau 
expressed  the  hatred  the  peasant  bore  to  his  seigneur;  and  a 
great  emigration  of  the  Protestants  of  all  classes  followed. 

The  Revolution  by  this  time  had  taken  place  in  England ; 

M.  I.  12 


i^S  Ireland.  [Chap. 

William  and  Mary  had  been  made  King  and  Queen;  James 
was  a  discrowned  and  fugitive  exile.     Catholic  Ireland,  how- 
ever, declared  for  him  to  a  man ;  and  Catholic  Ireland,  but  a 
few  months  before  apparently  in  a  state  of  torpid  submission, 
sprang  to  arms  with  the  passionate  impetuosity  of  the  Celt. 
The    Irish  Catholic,   indeed,  had  no  love  for  the   House  of 
Stuart,  but  he  felt  that  its  rights  were  bound  up  with  his  own ; 
and  the  time  had  come,  he  believed,  to  take  vengeance  for  the 
past,  from  the  days  of  Elizabeth  to  those  of  Cromwell.     Once 
more,  therefore,  the  great  body  of  the  Irish  people  threw  itself 
violently  across  the  path  of  England,  at  a  critical  and  Revo- 
lutionary time;    and  the  traditional  hatred  of  the  Irishry  felt 
by   Englishmen,   was    quickened   to  fury  by   the  recent  con- 
duct of  James,  in  bringing  over  regiments  from    Ireland,   to 
menace  his  English  subjects.     Prudence  and  reflection  were 
cast  to  the  winds ;   few  countries  have  ever  beheld  such   an 
armed  rising  as    that   of   Ireland   at    this    conjuncture.     The 
army  was  suddenly  increased  sixfold  in  numbers ;  out   of  a 
population  of  perhaps  a  million  and  a  half  of  souls,   100,000 
were    made   ready  for   the    field,   an  effort  greater  than  that 
of  France  in  1793-4.     The  movement  comprised  all  Irishmen 
of  the   Catholic   name,   for   the   extinction  of  the   old  tribal 
system  had  effaced  tribal  discords   and  jealousies ;    the   old 
Englishry  and  the  Celtic  Irishry  had  been  brought  together 
by   common  suffering ;    and   potent    incitements   added   their 
180       impulse.    Tyrconnell  declared  that  now  or  never  was  the  time; 
priests,  as  in  former  days,  preached  a  Holy  War;  France,  it 
was    noised   abroad,    would    soon    aid    Ireland;    hundreds  of 
exiles,  disciplined  in  foreign  armies,  flocked  to  the  Irish  shores 
to  train  the  masses  of  levies.     In  a  few  months  the  bodies  in 
arms  were  great ;  and  if  the  infantry  were  ill  equipped  and  of 
little  worth,  the  cavalry,  largely  composed  of  men  of   birth, 
with  good  officers,  as  a  rule,  at  their  head,  was  a  force  that  was 
in  no  sense  to  be  despised.     The  leaders  belonged,  for  the 


VI.]  From  tJie  Restoration  to  the  L  imerick  Capitulation,   1 79 

most  part,  to  the  old   Englishry,  but  some  were  of  genuine 
Celtic  blood. 

The  levies  of  the  Irishry  were  soon  in  motion,  overrunning 
the  three  southern  provinces  like  a  horde.  The  Englishry 
in  Munster  and  Connaught  made  an  attempt  at  resistance, 
but  Lords  Inchiquin  and  Kingston  were  beaten  in  the  field; 
the  force  of  overwhelming  numbers  swept  away  all  before  it. 
The  colonists  and  their  families,  who  were  driven  from  their 
homes,  turned  towards  the  powerful  settlements  in  the  north, 
largely  peopled  by  men  of  their  own  race  and  faith ;  Ulster 
was  their  City  of  Refuge  in  the  hour  of  trial.  Some  betook 
themselves  to  the  lesser  towns,  v/hich  had  been  rising  in  parts 
of  the  province;  many  gathered  behind  the  line  of  the  Erne, 
and  were  welcomed  at  Enniskillen,  a  fortified  place,  the  centre 
of  a  strong  Protestant  colony ;  but  the  great  majority,  it  is  said 
30,000  souls,  made  their  way  to  the  extreme  verge  of  the  north, 
to  Deny,  This  city,  we  have  seen,  had  a  name  in  the  days  of 
Shane  O'Neill ;  it  had  been  afterwards  destroyed  by  a  Celtic 
raid ;  but  it  rose  from  its  ashes  when  the  great  Plantation  was 
made,  and  it  had  become  the  seat  of  the  government  of 
the  London  merchants,  who  had  obtained  the  tracts  of  confis- 
cated land  in  the  neighbourhood.  The  burghers  had  given  the 
place  the  name  of  their  great  capital;  and  Londonderry  had 
been  for  some  time  a  thriving  and  growing  seaport  of  Ulster. 
The  town  was  protected  by  a  rude  wall  and  a  ditch ;  a  few 
guns — they  may  still  be  seen,  preserved,  through  two  centuries, 
with  pious  care — crowned  a  rampart  that  seemed  incapable  of 
defence.  The  population,  however,  were  sturdy  Protestants  of 
Anglo-Saxon  and  Scottish  blood ;  they  had  lately  given  a  proof 
of  their  quality.  At  the  approach  of  one  of  Tyrconn ell's 
Catholic  regiments,  thirteen  apprentices  had  shut  the  gates; 
they  were  made  heroes  by  the  rest  of  the  townsmen.  London- 
derry, however,  had  consented  to  receive  a  small  Protestant 
garrison  within  its  walls ;  this  was  in  the  hands  of  an  officer,  of 

12 — 2 


i8o  Ireland.  [Chap. 

the  name  of  Lundy,  believed   to   be   true  to  the  Protestant 
name. 

England  and  France  were,  before  long,  at  war ;  the  great 
rivals,  William  III  and  Louis  XIV,  representatives,  in  a  certain 
sense,  of  Protestantism  and  Catholicism  still  in  conflict,  were 
contending  for  the  prize  of  dominion  in  Europe.  James  had 
resolved  to  go  to  Ireland  to  support  his  own  cause  \  he  landed 
at  Kinsale  in  the  spring  of  1689.  He  had  received  some  funds 
from  France  and  a  few  hundred  officers,  but  Louis  had  refused 
to  send  an  army ;  France  did  not  possess  the  command  of  the 
sea;  she  required  all  her  forces  to  maintain  a  struggle  which 
was  soon  to  rage  from  the  Theiss  to  the  Scheldt.  James  had 
entered  Dublin  by  the  end  of  March ;  he  was  welcomed  with 
all  the  pomp  the  capital  could  display ;  a  flag  streaming  from 
the  Castle  and  bearing  the  device  "  now  or  never,  now  and  for 
'  ever  V' expressed  the  passionate  hopes  of  Catholic  Ireland.  By 
this  time  a  large  Irish  army,  from  25,000  to  30,000  strong,  had 
entered  Ulster  and  drawn  near  Londonderry ;  the  command 
had  been  bestowed  on  Rosen,  a  French  general  of  some 
distinction ;  French  officers  were  forming  the  Celtic  levies ;  the 
principal,  almost  the  last  bulwark  of  Protestant  Ireland  seemed 
about  to  fall.  James  set  off  from  Dublin,  confident  of  success  ; 
an  incident  he  thought  decisive  increased  his  hopes  just  as 
he  arrived  in  Rosen's  camp.  Lundy,  who  controlled  the 
military  force  within  Londonderry,  had  betrayed  his  trust; 
he  had  actually  sent  away  two  regiments  despatched  from 
England  to  defend  the  place ;  he  entered  into  secret  parleys 
with  the  enemy;  he  deserted  at  a  moment  he  deemed  opportune. 
Londonderry  was  thus  abandoned  to  herself;  but  she  had  no 
thought  of  yielding  to  "Irish  Papists  " ;  she  nerved  herself  for  a 
struggle  of  life  and  death.     Some  seven  thousand  men  were 

*  This  device  reappeared,  in  several  places,  at  the  General  Election  of 
1892.     The  Celts  have  long  memories. 


VI.]  From  the  Restoration  to  the  L  imerick  Capitulation.  1 8 1 

found  able  to  bear  arms ;  these  gathered  around  the  little 
garrison ;  in  an  incredibly  short  time  all  had  been  made  ready 
for  a  desperate  and  protracted  defence.  A  cry  of  "no 
surrender"  burst  from  the  walls  when  James  approached 
relying  on  Lundy's  treachery;  and  on  the  19th  of  April  a 
formal  summons  to  give  up  the  town  was  rejected  with 
contempt. 

A  siege  followed,  not  the  least  memorable  of  the  great 
sieges  of  which  History  tells.  Fire  opened  on  defences  which 
the  French  officers  believed  could  not  be  held  for  two  days; 
reiterated  assaults  were  courageously  made.  But  the  men 
of  Londonderry  clung  to  their  walls ;  the  strictest  discipline 
was  admirably  maintained;  select  bodies  of  volunteers  were 
placed,  each  in  its  own  station,  to  guard  the  ramparts ;  in 
a  short  time  fierce  and  determined  sallies  discomfited  and 
amazed  the  host  of  the  enemy.  And,  while  military  order  was 
sternly  upheld,  nothing  was  left  undone  to  keep  enthusiasm  at 
its  height ;  Baker,  a  soldier,  won  the  hearts  of  the  townsmen ; 
a  clergyman,  Walker,  stirred  the  whole  town  by  his  impassioned 
appeals  to  the  God  of  battles ;  hours  were  devoted  to  fasting 
and  solemn  prayer;  the  fervour  of  religion,  the  pride  of  race, 
the  scorn  of  the  enemy,  the  hatred  of  ages,  kept  up  the 
defenders,  when  it  was  said,  "  they  were  as  the  Israelites  in  the 
Red  Sea."  The  besiegers,  maddened  by  a  resistance  they  had 
treated,  at  first,  as  a  jest,  ere  long  made  ready  for  a  decisive 
effort ;  in  the  first  week  of  June  a  resolute  assault  was  made 
against  the  weakest  point  in  the  ramparts.  The  Irishry  fell 
on,  in  overwhelming  numbers,  and  with  valour  acknowledged 
by  their  foes;  but  the  stubborn  endurance  of  the  defence 
prevailed;  the  women  of  Londonderry  rushed  into  the  fight 
when  the  issue  was  for  a  time  doubtful ;  the  assailants  at  last 
were  driven  away  in  defeat. 

The  siege  was  now  turned  into  a  blockade,  an  agony  ever 
increasing  during  many  weeks.     The   Irish  army  closed   the 


1 82  Ireland.  [Chap. 

approaches  to  the  town ;  Hnecl  on  either  side  the  banks  of  the 
Foyle,  the  river  that  brought  the  port  its.  wealth,  and  ere  long 
drew  a  great  boom  across,  to  prevent  the  arrival  of  relief  from 
the  sea.  But  Londonderry  remained  defiant,  though  the 
crowds  of  fugitives  within  the  walls  were  consuming  fast  the 
store  of  provisions  which  had  been  laid  in  before  the  contest 
began.  The  ramparts  were  manned,  heavy  as  was  the  hand  of 
death ;  arms  were  found  to  grasp  weapons  which  other  arms 
had  dropped ;  stern  voices  mingled  the  watchword  of  "  no 
surrender  "  with  appeals  to  the  Most  High  to  save  his  children 
from  the  "idolatry  of  Rome"  and  the  "cruelties"  of  the  Celt. 
A  prospect  of  relief  appeared  at  last ;  the  sails  of  an  expe- 
ditionary force  were  descried  in  the  Bay  ;  but  they  drew  off,  for 
their  leader,  Kirke,  thought  it  had  become  impossible  to  effect 
a  landing ;  and  the  beleaguered  town  was  left  to  its  fast-failing 
resources.  The  sufferings  of  the  besieged  soon  became  intense ; 
the  refuse  of  the  sewer,  the  vermin  of  the  street,  were  welcome 
additions  to  the  wretched  supplies  of  food ;  and  Rosen — he 
had  only  just  taken  the  command  in  person — tried  barbarous 
expedients  to  compel  the  garrison  to  yield.  But  nothing  could 
subdue  those  undaunted  spirits;  the  dread  approach  of  famine 
was  despised ;  the  dole  of  bread  was  carefully  preserved  for 
the  haggard  spectres  that  guarded  the  walls  \  death  was  dreaded 
as  little  as  the  detested  enemy.  The  city  was  on  ihe  brink  of 
starvation,  v/hen,  on  the  twenty-eighth  of  July,  three  vessels 
were  seen  bearing  down  on  the  obstacle  thrown  across  the 
Foyle.  Kirke  had  received  positive  orders  to  relieve  the 
place ;  the  boom  was  broken,  after  a  first  effort  had  failed — the 
horror  of  the  suspense  was  long  remembered — and  London- 
derry was  set  free  from  her  pain.  The  siege  had  lasted  a 
hundred  and  five  days ;  soon  all  that  was  seen  of  the  Irish 
army  was  the  cloud  of  dust  that  marked  its  retreat. 

The  raising  of  the  siege  of  Londonderry  gave  a  new  turn 
to  the  war;   the  men  of  Enniskillen  defeated  the  Irisliry  at 


VI.]  From  the  Restoration  to  the  L  inter ick  Capitulation.    1 83 

Newton  Butler,  in  a  fierce  encounter',  chiefly  remarkable  for 
the  bloody  revenge  taken  by  the  colonial  caste  on  the  enemy. 
Meanwhile  James  had  gone  back  to  Dublin,  and  had  been 
engaged  in  setting  up  his  government;  he  had  become  a  mere 
puppet  in  the  hands  of  French  officials  and  soldiers,  and  of  the 
Irish  leaders.  One  act  of  his  administration  deserves  severe 
censure ;  he  issued  a  base  coinage,  remembered  for  years  as  a 
wicked  fraud  by  the  Dublin  citizens ;  and  he  gave  a  free  scope 
to  the  ascendency  of  the  men  of  his  faith,  which  had  been  the 
chief  work  of  the  reckless  Tyrconnell.  In  the  existing  condition 
of  Ireland,  however,  measures  like  these  cannot  cause  surprise : 
his  treasury  was  empty  and  his  army  was  in  the  field ;  the 
wrongs  of  Catholic  Ireland  were  cruel  and  many;  religious 
passions  had  been  stirred  up  to  frenzy ;  and,  in  this,  as  in  all 
other  instances,  allowance  must  be  made  for  a  Revolutionary 
time. 

The  King  convened  the  Irish  Parliament  in  May  1689;  the 
conduct  of  that  assembly  has  been  the  subject  of  the  misrepre- 
sentation of  partisan  writers;  but  if  some  of  its  acts  were 
indisputably  bad,  few  are  without  precedent  or  partial  excuse; 
others  are  fairly  entitled  to  praise ;  and  the  crisis,  we  repeat, 
must  be  taken  into  account.  The  Parliament  was  for  the 
most  part  composed  of  Catholics ;  but  there  were  more  Protest- 
ants in  it  than  there  had  been  Catholics  in  any  Irish  Parliament 
for  many  years ;  this  partial  transformation  was  an  inevitable 
event.  Nor  was  it  composed  in  the  main  of  Irish  Celts;  it 
contained  many  members,  indeed,  of  great  Milesian  Houses ; 
but  the  large  majority  was  formed  of  the  old  Englishry,  men  of 
birth  and  honour,  in  many  instances;  and  there  was  a  con- 
siderable admixture  of  very  distinguished  lawyers.  Two 
measures  of  the  Parliament  have  been  denounced  as  un- 
paralleled in  their  reckless  barbarity ;  the  Acts  of  Settlement 

^  Colonel  Wolseley,  an  ancestor,  we  believe,  of  Lord  Wolseley,  dis- 
tinguished himself  greatly  on  this  occasion. 


1 84  Ireland,  [Chap. 

were  summarily  repealed ;  an  Act  of  Attainder  was  passed 
against  about  2,500  persons,  supposed  to  be  adherents  of 
William  III,  if  they  did  not  return  to  Ireland  on  a  given  day. 
The  Acts  of  Settlement,  however,  were  utterly  unjust;  they 
were  of  recent  date  and  had  been  the  subject  of  protests  over 
and  over  again  :  as  for  the  Act  of  Attainder,  it  was  levelled 
against  presumed  enemies  of  James,  who  had  left  the  country ; 
and  in  this  respect  it  bears  a  strong  resemblance  to  the  decrees 
of  the  Convention  of  1793,  against  the  French  emigres,  which 
History  has,  on  the  whole,  justified.  It  deserves  notice,  more- 
over, that  innocent  purchasers,  after  the  Acts  of  Settlement, 
were  to  be  indemnified ;  the  Act  of  Attainder,  too,  was  con- 
ditional only,  and,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  a  Bill  of  the  same  kind 
was  actually  passed  by  the  English  House  of  Commons ;  and  if 
we  recollect  how  little  respect  had  been  given  to  titles  to  Irish 
land  for  ages,  what  injury  confiscation  had  wrought  in  Ireland, 
and  especially  what  were  the  animosities  of  the  hour,  this 
legislation  is  not  to  be  blamed  without  reserve.  Another  Act 
of  the  Parliament  of  1689  has  also  been  described  as  of  the 
very  worst  kind ;  it  declared  the  independence  of  the  Irish 
Parliament,  and  that  Ireland  was  not  bound  by  laws  passed  at 
Westminster.  This,  however,  had  always  been  the  doctrine  of 
the  best  Irish  lawyers ;  it  had  been  asserted  in  more  than  one 
Irish  Parliament ;  the  encroachments,  in  this  respect,  of  the 
English  Parliament  had  been  of  comparatively  modern  origin  ; 
the  worst,  perhaps,  was  that  of  the  Long  Parliament,  in  the 
matter  we  have  seen  of  the  "Adventurers'"  lands\  On  the 
other  hand  some  measures  of  this  Parliament  of  James  were 
not  without  marks  of  good  sense  and  wisdom.  Its  Declaration 
in  favour  of  religious  liberty  savoured  of  the  Declaration  of 

^  For  the  question  of  the  independence  of  the  Irish  Parliament  see  the 
excellent  work  of  the  Rt  Hon.  J.  T.  Ball,  Irish  Legislative  Systems, 
Chapters  4,  5,  6.  Macaulay,  History  of  England  iv.  216,  begs  the  whole 
question. 


VI.]  From  the  Restoration  to  the  L  imerick  Capitulation.   185 

Indulgence  made  by  the  King;  but  it  made  a  really  just 
partition  of  the  property  of  the  Church  between  the  rival  faiths, 
and  it  can  hardly  be  blamed  for  taxing  absentees,  an  order  of 
men  disliked  in  Ireland  since  the  feudal  age.  It  should  be 
added  that  this  Parliament  did  not  insist  on  repealing  the  Law 
of  Poynings,  which,  we  have  said,  had  been  a  cause  of  discon- 
tent, and  which  had  been  denounced  by  the  Catholic  Con- 
federates of  1642-8  ^■'^ 

While  James  was  thus  playing  the  king  in  Dublin,  an 
English  army  had  landed  on  the  coast  of  Antrim,  in  order  to 
effect  the  re-conquest  of  Ireland.  Its  commander  was  an  aged 
veteran,  Schomberg ;  and  though  it  was  largely  composed  of 
ill-trained  levies,  it  contained  some  regiments  of  excellent 
soldiers.  In  numbers  it  was  about  equal  to  the  Cromwellian 
army,  which  had  subjugated  Ireland  in  a  few  months ;  but  it 
had  a  very  different  chief  at  its  head,  and  its  operations  seem 
to  have  been  badly  directed.  It  is  not  easy  to  understand  why 
an  attempt  was  not  made  to  descend  on  Dublin,  and  strike  a 
decisive  blow ;  Schomberg,  like  Cromwell,  had  the  command 
of  the  sea ;  and  the  Irish  army,  after  its  late  defeats,  was 
disheartened  and  in  a  pitiable  plight.  Schomberg,  however, 
advanced  cautiously  from  Carrickfergus,  inland;  his  marches, 
through  a  difficult  country,  were  slow ;  the  Irish  climate  made 
havoc  of  his  men ;  and  his  army  was  half  destroyed  before  it 
reached  Dundalk,  more  than  fifty  miles  from  the  Irish  capital. 
He  was  compelled  to  retreat  into  winter  quarters;  this  gave 
James  time  to  restore  his  army,  and  to  make  preparations  to 
renew  the   contest.     The   Irishry   seconded   his   efforts   with 

^  Mr  Lecky's  account  of  the  proceedings  of  the  Irish  Parliament  of  1689 
is  just  and  impartial.  History  of  England  in  the  Eighteenth  Century^  II. 
Chap.  6.  pp.  182,  190.  Macaulay's  is  inaccurate,  and  conveys  a  false  im- 
pression. See  also  the  Patriotic  Parliajuejit  by  Thomas  Davis,  a  one-sided 
but  very  able  and  learned  narrative. 

*  See  note  at  end  of  Chapter. 


i86  Ireland.  [Chap. 

enthusiastic  ardour;  their  wasted  ranks  were  filled  with  thou- 
sands of  recruits ;  and  in  a  few  months  they  were  formidable 
in  numbers  at  least,  the  infantry  still  raw  and  bad,  but  the 
horse  good.  An  important  reinforcement,  too,  had  arrived : 
Louis  had  sent  6000  or  7000  French  troops  to  Ireland  to  the 
assistance  of  the  fugitive  king  of  England. 

The  contest  in  Ireland  had  become  so  doubtful,  that 
William  had  resolved  to  conduct  it  in  person.  He  landed  at 
Carrickfergus  in  June  1690;  it  is  still  difficult  to  explain  why 
he  did  not  aim  at  Dublin.  He  was  at  the  head  of  an  army  of 
about  36,000  men,  composed  of  many  races  and  tongues, 
English,  Danes,  Brandenburgers,  Dutch,  Germans,  but  well 
disciplined  and  prepared  for  the  field ;  two  bodies  were  con- 
spicuous in  the  motley  array,  the  Enniskilleners  thirsting  for 
another  Newton  Butler,  and  Huguenot  exiles  eager  to  avenge 
the  great  wrong  of  the  Revocation  of  the  Edict  of  Nantes. 
William  tacitly  condemned  the  late  campaign  of  Schomberg ; 
though  usually  methodical  and  slow  in  war,  he  made  his 
advance  as  rapid  as  possible ;  on  the  evening  of  the  30th  June 
his  army  had  reached  the  northern  bank  of  the  Boyne,  the 
stream  that  here  divides  the  counties  of  Louth  and  Meath. 
James  had  been  advised  by  the  French  officers  to  fall  back 
behind  the  line  of  the  Shannon,  the  enemy  being  greatly 
superior  in  strength ;  but  the  Irish  leaders  had  insisted  on 
defending  Dublin ;  and  the  Irish  soldiery  burned  to  strike  a 
blow  at  the  "  Saxon."  The  King's  forces  were  perhaps  30,000 
strong,  all,  except  the  French,  and  the  Irish  cavalry,  of  very  in- 
ferior quality ;  they  occupied  the  southern  bank  of  the  Boyne 
and  had  been  made  ready  to  fight  a  pitched  battle.  The  veteran 
Schomberg  was  the  chief  of  William's  lieutenants;  the  youthful 
Berwick,  a  bastard  of  James,  the  warrior  of  Almanza  on  another 
day,  was  in  the  ranks  of  the  French  auxiliaries.  But  the  hero 
of  the  Irishry  was  Patrick  Sarsfield,  a  scion  of  a  House  of  the 
old  Englishry,  who  had  done  good  service  with  Churchill  at 


VI.]  From  the  Restoration  to  the  L iiiicrick  Capiiulation.   i Z'j 

Sedgemoor,  and  had  given  proof  of  valour  and  resource  in  the 
present  war  in  Ireland. 

The  battle  that  followed,  known  as  the  Battle  of  the  Boyne, 
fought  on  the  ist  of  July  1690,  was  not  a  remarkable  passage  of 
war,  but  is  remembered  with  feelings  of  pride  and  shame  by  the 
still  divided  races  and  faiths  of  Ireland.  The  position  of  James 
was  strong  against  a  direct  attack;  a  broad  and  deep  river  ran 
before  his  front ;  his  reserves  were  thrown  back  out  of  the  sight 
of  the  enemy.  But  a  narrow  defile  at  Duleek  near  his  rear  was 
almost  his  only  avenue  of  retreat ;  and  this  had  a  disastrous 
effect  on  the  issue  of  the  day.  A  son  of  Schomberg  was  ordered 
to  threaten  the  Irish  left ;  this  movement  might  cause  the  loss 
of  the  pass ;  the  French  contingent  and  Sarsfield  were  accord- 
ingly detached  to  guard  a  point  of  supreme  importance. 
Meanwhile  the  main  body  of  William's  forces  crossed  the 
Boyne  at  fords  near  the  village  of  Oldbridge;  the  result  was 
what  almost  always  happens  when  real  soldiers  encounter  mere 
rude  levies.  The  Irish  infantry,  deprived  of  their  French  allies, 
gave  way  as  their  foemen  approached  the  southern  bank ;  the 
plain  was  soon  crowded  with  flying  masses  hurrying  towards 
the  reserves  gathered  around  Donore.  But  it  was  otherwise 
with  the  Irish  cavalry ;  they  made  a  desperate  and  heroic 
stand;  Danes,  Huguenots,  and  Englishmen  were  more  than 
once  driven  back.  Schomberg  met  a  soldier's  death  in  the 
struggle;  in  fact  the  Irish  horsemen  maintained  their  ground 
until  William  had  turned,  from  near  Drogheda,  the  position 
from  his  left;  even  then  they  fell  back  fighting  on  Donore.  A 
last  eftbrt  was  made  to  resist  at  that  place ;  but  the  battle  had 
by  this  time  been  won ;  the  defeated  army  was  soon  in  full 
retreat  on  Dublin.  The  French,  however,  had  occupied  the 
defile  at  Duleek;  their  absence  from  the  field  was  an  irreparable 
loss;  but  it  certainly  averted  a  complete  rout\ 

1  A  spirited  account  of  the  Battle  of  the  Boyne  will  be  found  in  the 
Memoirs  of  Dumont  de  Bostaquet,  a  Huguenot  seigneur  in  the  service  of 


1 88  Ireland.  [Chap. 

James  was  soon  again  an  exile  on  his  way  to  France;  his 
conduct  at  the  Boyne  had  been  unworthy  of  him ;  he  had 
expressed  his  distrust  of  his  Irish  soldiers,  and  had  abandoned 
them  in  the  hour  of  disaster.  William  had  before  long  been 
received  in  Dublin,  to  the  enthusiastic  delight  of  the  Protestant 
townsmen;  the  government  of  his  adversary  at  once  disappeared. 
The  King  delayed  for  a  time  in  the  capital,  and  did  not  press 
his  defeated  enemy ;  he  was  perhaps  kept  back  by  the  news  of 
the  reverse  at  Beachy  Head ;  but,  hero  as  he  was,  he  was  not 
a  great  captain;  he  never  excelled  in  the  direction  of  war.  His 
hesitation  enabled  the  Irish  army,  still  probably  20,000  strong,  to 
reach  in  safety  the  line  of  the  Shannon;  it  had  assembled  around 
Limerick  by  the  close  of  July.  The  city,  like  Londonderry,  was 
rudely  fortified;  but  Lauzun,  the  chief  of  the  French  contingent, 
and  his  officers  pronounced  it  unable  to  resist  an  attack  made 
by  even  a  small  force ;  they  were,  in  truth,  sick  of  the  war  in 
Ireland;  they  had  no  faith  in  the  Irish  levies;  their  only 
thought  was  to  see  France  again.  But  the  Irish  leaders  were 
of  a  different  mind,  and  they  found  a  response  in  the  hearts  of 
their  men ;  Limerick  was  the  rallying  point  of  their  race  in 
peril ;  Limerick  was  to  be  defended  at  any  risk,  to  the  last. 
After  angry  discussions  Lauzun  and  his  regiments  fell  back  on 
Galway ;  the  Irishry  were  left  to  make  a  stand  at  Limerick. 
Their  nominal  commander  was  a  French  officer,  but  the  real 
leader  was  their  beloved  Sarsfield. 

Preparations  for  resistance  were  now  made ;  the  place 
gradually  acquired  increasing  strength.  Limerick,  then  the 
second  of  Irish  cities,  rose  from  an  island,  surrounded  by  the 
Shannon ;  this  was  approached  by  bridges,  protected  by  forts, 

William.  He  especially  praises  the  conduct  of  the  Irish  horsemen.  We 
have  only  space  for  a  single  passage,  p.  272:  "Nous  nous  melames  parmi 
les  ennemis  et  les  rompimes ;  mais  le  Sieur  de  Belcastre,  commandant 
notre  escadron,  ayant  ete  fort  blesse,  Varenques  culbute,  le  vent  et  la 
poussiere  nous  etant  contraires,  notre  escadron  se  retira  en  desordre." 


VI.]  From  tJie  Restoration  to  the  Limerick  Capitniaiion.   1 89 

commanding  most  of  the  space  outside  the  walls.  Unguarded 
points  were  fortified  by  works  hastily  raised;  the  adjoining  plain 
was  broken  up  by  fences,  and  obstacles  were  accumulated  to 
repel  an  attack.  Stores  of  provisions,  too,  were  brought  in ;  the 
threatened  garrison  spared  no  efforts ;  the  citizens  joined 
heartily  in  the  labours  of  the  defence.  William  was  before 
Limerick  in  the  second  week  of  August ;  one  of  the  forts  was 
captured  by  a  sudden  assault ;  he  began  to  draw  his  lines 
round  the  beleaguered  city.  He  had,  however,  only  light  guns 
with  him ;  a  siege  train  was  still  on  the  way ;  over-confidence 
alone  can  explain  the  mistake  of  challenging  an  enemy  when 
still  unprepared.  The  opportunity  was  seized  by  Sarsueld ; 
he  was  informed  by  a  deserter  that  the  heavy  guns  were 
approaching  William's  camp  by  the  roads  from  Cashel ;  and 
sallying  from  the  place,  he  crossed  the  Shannon,  fell  on  the 
artillery  park  near  the  hills  of  Silvermines,  and  destroyed  it  with 
a  loss  of  scarcely  a  man.  The  stroke  was  brilliant  and  well 
directed;  the  Irish  chief  was  soon  in  Limerick  again. 

William,  a  tenacious,  if  not  a  great  commander,  continued 
the  attack  in  spite  of  this  reverse.  He  contrived  to  repair  two 
of  the  heavy  guns,  and  kept  up  a  desultory  fire  on  the  place ; 
in  truth,  like  all  the  officers  in  his  camp,  he  was  confident  that 
it  must  soon  fall.  Limerick,  however,  held  out  with  untiinching 
constancy ;  the  waters  of  the  Shannon  had  begun  to  rise ;  the 
rainy  season  would  soon  make  the  surrounding  plain  a  pesti- 
lential swamp ;  the  King  resolved  to  try  the  effect  of  an  assault 
before  the  Irish  climate  had  decimated  his  men.  On  the 
27  th  of  August  a  column  of  picked  English  troops  endeavoured 
to  storm  a  breach  still  imperfect;  it  was  followed  by  a  con- 
siderable part  of  the  army'.     But  the  assailants  encountered 

^  Macaulay,  History  of  England,  v.  309,  seems  rather  to  underrate  the 
force  of  the  assailants.  The  account  of  Dumont  de  Bostaquet  is  more  full 
and  clear.  He  says,  pp.  287-8:  "Les  ennemis  chargerent  nos  troupes 
dans   leur    retraite,  et  nous   tuerent   ou  blesserent   plus  de  quinze  cents 


190  Ireland.  [Chap. 

foemen  worthy  of  their  steel;  the  Irishry  fought  with  desperate 
courage;  the  women  as  at  Londonderry  took  part  in  the  fight; 
and  the  attack  was  repulsed  w'ith  heavy  loss.  The  King, 
alarmed  at  the  prospect  of  danger  before  him,  raised  the  siege, 
and  drew  off  his  discomfited  army ;  he  was,  in  a  few  days,  on 
his  way  back  to  England.  The  heroism  of  Limerick  and  the 
skill  of  Sarsfield  kept  Uie  scales  of  fortune  still  in  suspense. 

Justice  has  not  been  done  to  the  defence  of  limerick  by 
historians  of  the  conquering  race;  but  it  may  stand  by  the 
side  of  that  of  Londonderry ;  in  both  instances  the  courage  of 
despair  baffled  the  calculations  of  experienced  soldiers,  and 
plucked  victory  out  of  the  extreme  of  danger.  Before  long 
Marlborough  had  taken  Cork  and  Kinsale ;  this  was  the  most 
brilliant  exploit  of  the  war;  the  blow  was  aimed  at  the 
communications  of  the  French  by  sea ;  and  it  had  great, 
perhaps  decisive  effects  \  Lauzun  and  most  of  his  troops 
took  their  departure  for  France;  the  defence  of  Ireland  was 
left  almost  altogether  to  the  Irish  army.  France  in  truth  had 
given  the  Irishry  but  little  help  ;  like  Spain,  in  the  preceding 
century,  she  had  treated  them  as  mere  pawns  in  her  game ; 
this  was  almost  inevitable  in  the  case  of  a  power  which  did 
not  possess  the  command  of  the  sea,  and  had  to  send  troops  to 
a  distant  island,  surrounded  by  the  Atlantic,  but  near  England 
and  her  fleets.  The  contending  armies  went  into  winter 
quarters,  the  English  occupying  the  greater  part  of  the  country 
to  the  east  of  the  Shannon,  the  Irish  for  the  most  part  west  of 
the  river ;  it  is  unnecessary  to  say  how  unequal  they  were  in 
all   that   makes   troops   fitted   to   take   the   field.     Ginkle,    a 

homines.  Cette  entreprise  ne  seivit  qu'a  nous  faire  perdre  beaucoup  de 
monde;  le  regiment  des  gardes  flamandes  perdit  beaucoup  d'officiers,  mais, 
plus  que  tous,  les  regiments  fran9ais. " 

1  l^ox^\^o\?,t\eY,  History  of  Alarlboroiigh,  ii.  157,  220,  has  given  us  an 
admirable  and  discriminating  account  of  the  capture  of  Cork  and  Kinsale 
and  of  the  results. 


VI.]  From  the  Restoration  to  the  L  imerick  Capitulation.   1 9 1 

Dutchman,  commanded  William's  forces;  the  Irish  were  in 
the  hands  of  Saint  Ruth,  a  French  general  sent  from  Versailles ; 
but  they  remained  devoted  as  ever  to  Sarsfield,  and  unhappily 
Saint  Ruth  and  Sarsfield  disliked  each  other.  Athlone  was 
attacked  by  Ginkle  in  June  1691 ;  he  was  soon  master  of  the 
part  of  the  town  along  the  Leinster  shore  of  the  Shannon ;  but 
he  encountered  a  stubborn  resistance  on  the  Connaught  shore, 
where  part  of  the  Irish  army  held  a  fort  on  the  passage.  'J 'he 
assailants  were  more  than  once  beaten  off  from  the  bridge 
which  spanned  the  stream  near  the  centre  of  the  place;  but 
they  crossed  on  the  30th  by  a  ford  lower  down  and  drove  the 
enemy  out  of  the  fort,  which  they  seized.  Saint  Ruth  had 
remained  inactive  in  his  camp  hard  by;  he  had  had  angry 
disputes  with  Sarsfield;  the  fatal  divisions  of  Ireland  had 
appeared   once  more. 

The  French  commander,  stung  to  the  quick  by  a  defeat 
due  to  his  own  neglect,  now  determined  to  fight  a  pitched 
battle.  Sarsfield,  a  much  abler  soldier,  protested  in  vain  ;  Saint 
Ruth  would  not  listen  to  the  advice  of  his  colleague.  He 
drew  together  all  the  forces  at  hand,  and  placed  them  in  a 
position  of  formidable  strength,  their  front  covered  by  a  bog 
near  the  valley  of  the  Suck,  their  flanks  protected  on  either 
side  by  obstacles,  and  on  the  left  by  the  hamlet  and  the  old  castle 
of  Aghrim.  No  effort  was  spared  to  arouse  the  hearts  of  his 
men ;  he  harangued  regiments  in  person  and  bade  them 
do  or  die ;  priests  with  crucifixes  passed  along  the  ranks 
and  adjured  them  to  fight  for  their  homes  and  their  faith. 
Ginkle  had  reached  the  enemy  by  the  12th  of  July,  at  the 
head  of  about  20,000  men ;  the  Irish  were  not  more  than 
25,000,  but  they  held  a  position  of  such  vantage  that  Ginkle 
hesitated  for  a  time  to  attack.  The  battle  began  at  about  five 
in  the  afternoon;  an  attempt  against  the  right  of  the  Irish 
failed ;  and  Ginkle's  army  endeavoured  in  vain  to  make  its  w^ay 
through   the   yielding   morass,    and   to   fall   in    force    on    the 


192  Ireland,  [Chap. 

enemy's  centre.  The  Irish,  protected  by  a  hastily  formed 
breastwork,  repelled  successfully  every  attack;  and  Saint  Ruth 
shouted  victory  as  he  beheld  the  best  troops  of  England 
recoiling  in  defeat.  An  effort  was  next  made  to  turn  the  Irish 
left;  at  this  critical  moment  Saint  Ruth  was  slain;  and  Sars field, 
on  whom  the  command  devolved,  was  not  only  ignorant  of  the 
plans  of  his  chief,  but  had  received  positive  orders  not  to 
employ  the  reserve.  The  attack  on  Aghrim  proved  at  last 
successful,  very  probably  owing  to  this  untoward  accident ;  the 
whole  Irish  army  gave  way  by  degrees,  but  it  fought  heroically 
while  a  chance  was  left.  The  hatred  of  the  victors  was  seen  in 
a  hideous  butchery ;  thousands  of  corpses  marked  the  line  of 
the  rout. 

The  broken  wreck  of  the  Irish  army  drifted  in  part  to 
Galway,  and  in  part  to  Limerick.  Galway  opened  its  gates  in 
a  few  days;  most  of  the  towns  in  Munster  and  Connaught, 
which  held  out  for  James,  were  soon  given  up  to  his  rival's 
troops ;  Limerick  alone  continued  to  defy  the  enemy.  After 
the  defeat  of  William,  the  year  before,  the  city  had  been  the 
scene  of  bickerings  between  Berwick,  the  nominal  governor, 
Tyrconnell,  and  the  officers  of  the  Irish  garrison ;  the  defences 
appear  to  have  not  been  improved.  Ginkle  advanced  cautiously 
against  the  place,  and  invested  it  with  methodical  care ;  he  had 
evidently  not  forgotten  the  lesson  taught  by  the  assault.  He 
kept  within  his  lines  for  nearly  a  month,  before  he  ventured  to 
risk  an  attack ;  the  chief  bridge  leading  into  Limerick  was  then 
all  but  captured,  and  a  fort  outside  it  was  successfully  stormed. 
By  this  time  Tyrconnell  had  died ;  the  heads  of  the  extinct 
government  of  James  were  within  the  town,  and  sighed  for 
relief;  the  Irish  soldiery,  cowed  by  the  horrors  of  Aghrim, 
seemed  unwilling  to  prolong  a  now  hopeless  contest.  Sarsfield, 
with  true  judgment,  resolved  to  make  terms,  while  arms  still 
remained  in  his  hands ;  and  he  entered  into  parleys  with 
Ginkle.    The  capitulation  was  agreed  to  on  the  3rd  of  October 


VI.]  From  the  Restoration  to  the  L  inter ick  Capitulation.   1 93 

1691 ;  the  Culloden  of  the  Irishry  had  been  fought;  the  "red 
eye  of  battle  "  had  closed  in  despair  on  the  struggles  and  the 
hopes  of  Catholic  Ireland. 

The  Treaty  of  Limerick  forms  a  melancholy  passage  in 
Irish  History'.  It  consisted  of  two  parts.  The  military  articles 
were  signed  by  generals  of  both  armies — the  name  of  Sarsfield 
curiously  does  not  appear; — unquestionably  they  were  faithfully 
observed.  The  chief  of  these  provisions  was  that  soldiers  of 
the  Irish  forces  should  have  a  right  to  "  enlist  in  the  service  of 
France."  Advantage  was  generally  taken  of  this  condition ;  the 
great  majority  of  the  men  who  had  made  a  stand  at  Aghrim 
and  defended  Limerick  went  into  exile.  The  gallant  Sarsfield 
was  at  their  head ;  he  was  to  die  the  most  enviable  of  deaths 
on  the  field  of  Landen,  in  the  face  of  the  enemy,  but  in  the 
hour  of  triumph.  His  followers  were  to  increase  the  list  of  the 
Irish  foes  of  England,  and  to  form  the  nucleus  of  the  celebrated 
body  of  men,  "  ever  and  everywhere "  true  to  the  Bourbon 
lilies,  who  were  to  win  renown  for  the  Irish  name  in  war,  on 
many  a  hard  fought  day  from  Cremona  to  Minden. 

The  civil  articles  of  the  capitulation  bore  the  names  of 
Ginkle,  of  the  functionaries  who  had  been  made  Lords  Justices 
by  William  when  he  had  left  Ireland,  and  of  Sarsfield  and 
other  superior  Irish  officers.  Unlike  the  military  articles,  they 
were  not  respected,  and  the  violated  "  Treaty  of  Limerick  "  is 
still  properly  a  word  of  reproach.  By  one  of  the  articles  it  was 
declared  that  Irish  Catholics  should  have  "such  privileges  in 
the  exercise  of  their  religion,  as  were  consistent  with  the  laws 
of  Ireland,  or  as  they  did  enjoy  in  the  reign  of  Charles  II"; 
this  secured  them  toleration  at  least  for  their  faith,  if  it  did  not 
make  them  eligible  to  hold  offices  in  the  State.  An  amnesty, 
too,  was  extended  to  the  townsmen  of  Limerick,  and  to  all 

^  The  capitulation  of  Limerick  is  set  out  at  length  in  Leland,  ill. 
appendix,  619,  634.  It  should  be  carefully  studied.  The  accounts  of 
most  historians  are  superficial  and  inaccurate. 

M.  I.  13 


194  Ireland.  [Chap. 

officers  and  soldiers  of  the  Irish  army,  under  conditions  that 
must  be  pronounced  fair;  and  there  were  other  provisions  of 
the  same  character.  The  most  important,  however,  of  the 
civil  articles — a  subject  of  passionate  disputes  afterwards — 
was  this,  "  the  inhabitants  or  residents  of  Limerick,  or  any 
garrison  in  the  possession  of  the  Irish ;  all  officers  and 
soldiers"  of  the  Jacobite  army  in  five  specified  counties,  and 
all  '■'■  persons  u?ider  their  protection  in  the  said  counties  " ;  and 
all  "  commissioned  officers  "  in  counties  occupied  by  William's 
troops,  were  to  be  restored  to  their  estates,  should  they  make 
submission  to  the  new  government :  this  provision,  it  was 
calculated,  would  save  their  lands  for  more  than  three 
thousand  owners.  Unhappily  a  mistake  was  committed  here ; 
the  comprehensive  words  "  under  their  protection  in  the  said 
counties "  were  omitted  in  one  draft ;  but  William  expressly 
declared  that  this  was  an  oversight,  and  the  words,  therefore, 
must  be  held  to  have  been  part  of  the  Treaty.  The  Lords 
Justices  undertook  to  "  use  their  utmost  endeavours,"  that  the 
articles  "should  be  ratified  and  confirmed"  by  the  Irish 
Parliament ;  if  this  confirmation  was,  perhaps,  necessary,  it  was 
taken  for  granted  that  no  difficulty  could  arise. 

Irish  History  presents  some  points  of  resemblance,  and 
others  of  difference,  in  the  two  periods,  between  the  death  of 
Elizabeth  and  the  Restoration,  and  between  the  accession  of 
Charles  II  and  the  Treaty  of  Limerick.  In  both  instances  a 
season  of  deceptive  rest  was  followed  by  a  rising  of  the  subject 
community  and  by  a  fierce  conflict  of  races  and  faiths.  In  both 
cruel  wrongs  were  done  to  Ireland ;  the  spoliation  of  the  times 
of  James  I  and  of  Charles  I,  and  the  frightful  proscription 
effected  by  Cromwell,  found  their  counterparts  in  the  Acts  of 
Settlement,  and  in  the  evil  policy  which  led  up  to  them.  In 
both  material  prosperity  faintly  appears,  only  to  end  in  material 
ruin ;  in  both  England  was  guilty  of  unjust  oppression,  and 
of  forcing   her   institutions    on    a   reluctant   people;   in   both 


VI.]  From  the  Restoration  to  tJie  Limerick  Capitulation.    195 

Protestant  Ascendency  makes  progress,  and  with  Catholic 
Subjection  becomes  more  and  more  the  characteristic  type  of 
society.  The  differences,  however,  are  strongly  marked  ;  in  the 
first  period  the  old  Englishry  stood  widely  apart  from  the  Irish 
Celts,  at  least  until  the  Cromwellian  Conquest ;  in  the  second 
they  are  made  almost  one  with  them,  under  the  influence  of 
misgovernment  from  which  both  suffer.  The  line  between  the 
races  is  thus  still  more  lessened  until  it  aj^pears  well  nigh  to 
vanish ;  but  if  it  may  yet  be  traced,  and  is  real,  the  line 
between  religions  becomes  more  and  more  deep,  and  separates 
Ireland,  more  and  more,  into  a  Protestant  body  of  settlers  and 
a  mass  of  Catholics.  In  the  second  period,  too,  civil  war 
assumes  a  nobler  aspect  than  in  the  first;  it  ceases  to  be  on 
the  part  of  the  Irishry  a  merely  tribal  resistance  to  a  conquering 
Power;  it  is  notable  for  heroic  deeds  on  both  sides,  though 
fatal  Irish  disunion  is  not  absent.  The  Irish  Parliament, 
besides,  of  1689  contrasts  favourably  with  the  Confederacy  of 
1642-8;  and,  on  the  whole,  in  the  second  period  religious 
passion  is  hardly  as  fierce  as  in  the  first,  although  it  remains  a 
dominant  force.  The  two  periods  have  one  feature,  of  the 
very  highest  importance,  in  common  :  in  both  Ireland  strikes 
hard  at  England  in  a  time  of  peril  and  revolution ;  and  in 
both  Ireland  has  to  pay  the  penalty. 

Catholic  Ireland  was  now  at  the  feet  of  William,  almost  as 
completely  as  she  had  been  at  the  feet  of  Cromwell.  The 
men,  indeed,  were  of  different  natures :  but  would  Protestant 
Ireland  thirsting  for  revenge,  would  the  men  at  the  Castle 
looking  out  for  forfeitures,  as  in  the  day  of  Borlase  and 
Parsons,  would  the  English  Parliament  supreme  in  the  State, 
long  accustomed  to  meddle  in  Irish  affairs,  and  eager  to  make 
an  example  of  ''  Irish  Papists,"  permit  the  King  to  carry  out 
the  principles  of  religious  toleration  and  of  natural  justice  in 
the  case  of  Ireland,  which  he  had  made  his  own  ?  Would  the 
Treaty  of  Limerick  suffice  to  restrain  savage  animosities  of  race 

13—2 


196  Ireland.  [Chap.vi. 

and  faith,  cupidity,  and  the  anger  and  pride  of  a  conquering 
people,  or  would  it  prove  worse  than  an  empty  delusion  ?  On 
that  issue  much  might  yet  depend,  though  it  is  difficult  to 
suppose  that,  in  any  event,  the  existing  state  of  things  in 
Ireland  could  endure,  or  produce  permanent  peace  and  good 
government.  But  the  result  was  to  be  seen  ere  long ;  Ireland 
was  about  to  enter  on  perhaps  the  most  sad  and  disastrous 
period  of  her  whole  history,  bearing  in  mind  the  contem- 
poraneous state  of  the  world. 


Note,  p.  185.  Mr  Lecky,  History  of  England  in  the  Eighteenth 
Century,  II.  183,  and  Mr  Froude,  The  English  in  Ireland,  I.  191,  state 
that  Poynings'  Law  was  repealed  by  the  Irish  Parliament  in  1689.  This 
seems  to  be  an  error.  No  such  repeal  is  to  be  found  in  the  Acts  of  that 
Parliament  set  forth  in  Davis's  work.  Leland,  ill.  540,  Edition  1773, 
expressly  says  that  Poynings'  Law  was  not  repealed  owing  to  the  inter- 
position of  James.  Macaulay,  History  of  England^  iv.  213,  Edition  1858, 
does  not  refer  to  this  subject. 


CHAPTER   VIT. 

THE   PERIOD  OF   THE   PENAL  LAWS   IN   IRELAND. 
THE   REVOLUTION   OF    1/82. 

Retrospect  of  Irish  History,  since  the  Anglo-Norman  Conquest.  The 
influence  of  circumstance  on  events.  The  Treaty  of  Limerick 
violated.  Ruin  of  Catholic  owners.  The  Penal  Code  enacted  by 
degrees.  Its  threefold  object,  to  exclude  the  Catholics  from  the  land 
and  from  all  power  in  the  State,  to  degrade  them,  and  to  keep  their 
Church  in  subjection.  Its  disastrous  effects.  Emigration  of  Catholics 
from  Ireland.  Distinguished  Irish  Catholic  exiles.  The  "wild 
geese."  The  Irish  Brigade.  How  the  Code  affected  the  land, 
commerce,  and  social  relations.  Demoralisation  caused  by  it. 
Subjection  of  Protestant  Ireland  to  England.  Commercial  restric- 
tions. Destruction  of  the  Irish  woollen  manufacture.  Measures 
against  the  Irish  Presbyterians.  The  evil  results.  The  Irish 
Parliament.  Its  composition  and  weakness.  Restrictions  on  it. 
Declaratory  statute  that  the  English  Parliament  could  bind  Ireland  by 
its  laws.  Modification  of  Poynings'  Law.  Heads  of  Bills.  The 
Irish  Parliament  inferior  and  subject.  The  Irish-Anglican  or  Es- 
tablished Church.  Its  characteristics.  The  Irish  Catholic  Church. 
The  Irish  Bench  and  Bar.  Appearance  of  the  country.  Molyneux, 
Swift,  and  Berkeley.  Their  writings  on  Ireland.  Gradual  improve- 
ment before  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century.  Social  and 
political  progress.  An  "Irish  interest"  formed  in  the  Irish  Parlia- 
ment. Opposition  to  the  Government.  The  "Undertakers."  Anthony 
Malone.  Condition  of  Ireland  about  1760.  The  Whiteboy  and  other 
movements.  Agrarian  crime  in  Ireland.  The  first  years  of  the  reign 
of  George  III  quiet  in  Ireland.  Henry  Flood.  The  Viceroyalty 
of  Lord   Townshend.     Quarrel    with   the    "Undertakers"    and   the 


198  Ireland.  [Chap. 

Irish  Parliament.  The  Viceroyahy  of  Lord  Harcourt.  Influence  on 
Ireland  of  the  revolt  of  the  American  colonies.  Profuse  corruption. 
Attitude  of  the  Irish  Parliament.  Extreme  distress  and  fear  of 
invasion.  The  Volunteer  movement.  Plenry  Grattan.  Concession 
of  a  partial  Free  Trade  to  Ireland.  Demands  for  Legislative 
Independence.  The  Volunteers  at  Dungannon.  Grattan  moves  the 
Legislative  Independence  of  Ireland.  The  Revolution  of  1782. 
Relaxation  of  the  Penal  Code.  Irish  Literature,  Art,  and  Science. 
Reflections. 

A  PERIOD  of  five  centuries  had  now  passed  away,  since 
England  had  begun  to  establish  her  rule  in  Ireland.  During 
the  first  three  of  these  she  had  only  succeeded  in  making  her 
influence  felt  within  a  narrow  Pale,  diminishing  too  in  the 
course  of  time;  the  rest  of  the  island  had  been  abandoned  to 
half  barbarous  feudaHsm,  and  to  chiefs  of  the  Celts.  The  first 
Tudor  Sovereigns  had,  in  different  ways,  made  real  attempts  to 
extend  the  power  of  the  Monarchy  over  the  whole  of  Ireland, 
and  to  enlarge  the  domain  of  order  and  law ;  the  policy  of 
Henry  VIII  in  this  respect  was,  for  the  most  part,  marked  by 
enlightened  wisdom.  But  the  King's  system  of  government 
ceased  with  his  life ;  and  a  series  of  unhappy  circumstances 
destroyed  the  promise  of  the  auspicious  era  that  seemed 
about  to  open.  The  Reformation  separated  England  and 
Ireland  by  degrees,  if  this,  for  a  long  time,  was  not  a  main 
cause  of  disunion ;  the  advance  of  the  dominion  of  England 
was  characterised  by  spoliation,  often  unjust,  and  by  irregular 
risings  of  nobles  and  chiefs;  and,  at  the  great  crisis  of  the 
sixteenth  century,  Ireland  threw  in  her  lot  with  the  foes  of 
England,  and  was  gradually  subjugated  by  evil  and  atrocious 
methods.  The  struggle  of  race  and  religion,  which  had  long 
been  growing,  now  became  more  internecine  and  fierce ;  con- 
fiscation proceeded  on  a  gigantic  scale ;  the  usages  of  the  Irish 
Celts  were  blotted  out ;  and  masses  of  settlers,  alien  from  the 
children  of  the  soil,  were  made  possessors  of  vast  tracts  of 
territory,  torn  from  their  ancient  owners  and  occupants  by  all 


VII.]      The  Period  of  the  Penal  Laws  in  Ireland.      199 

kinds  of  wrong.  After  the  era  of  Protestant  Ascendency  had 
thus  begun,  the  subject  CathoHc  people  rose  once  more ; 
Ireland  crossed  England  again  at  a  most  critical  time ;  a 
period  of  savage  civil  war  followed ;  and  Cromwell  placed  the 
whole  island  under  the  Puritan  yoke,  trying  to  crush  out  all 
distinctions,  save  that  of  faith,  enormously  increasing  the 
Protestant  settlements,  and  governing  by  an  absolute  despotism 
of  the  sword.  The  Restoration,  in  the  main,  confirmed  his 
policy  ;  after  a  brief  period  of  treacherous  repose,  CathoHc 
Ireland,  for  the  second  time  in  the  seventeenth  century,  took  up 
arms  against  Protestant  England,  and  engaged  in  a  desperate 
strife  with  her  far  stronger  neighbour  at  a  moment  of  revolution 
and  national  danger.  The  result  was  what  might  have  been 
foreseen :  CathoHc  Ireland  went  down  in  an  unequal  conflict, 
having  provoked  the  indignation  and  wrath  of  England;  and 
she  had  now  to  abide  the  results  of  another  conquest. 

These  considerations  must  be  borne  in  mind  as  we  review 
the  dark  and  calamitous  period  of  Irish  History  we  are  about 
to  traverse.  It  should  be  added  that  if  the  lot  of  Ireland  had 
been,  for  five  hundred  years,  that  of  a  neglected  and  a 
misruled  dependency,  this  was  less  due  to  positive  faults  of 
her  own,  or  to  positive  faults  of  the  dominant  country,  than  to 
what,  in  our  ignorance,  we  must  call  the  evil  play  of  fortune. 
A  series  of  accidents  had  checked  the  growth  and  development 
of  the  English  power,  throughout  the  island,  in  the  Middle  Ages ; 
instead  of  a  strong  and  well-ordered  Monarchy,  only  a  feeble 
settlement  had  been  made,  by  the  side  of  feudal  and  Celtic 
anarchy.  Consequently,  at  the  momentous  epoch  of  the 
sixteenth  century,  when  the  world  was  passing  into  a  new 
existence,  Ireland  was  centuries  behind  England,  in  civilisation 
and  social  progress;  this  single  circumstance  largely  explains 
the  train  of  unhappy  events  that  followed.  It  makes  us 
understand,  to  a  considerable  extent,  why  Ireland  parted  from 
England  at  the  Reformation ;   why  English  statesmen  tried  to 


200  Ireland.  [Chap. 

impose  their  institutions  on  a  people  they  deemed  barbarous, 
and  to  obliterate  Irish  laws  and  customs ;  why  the  colonisation 
of  Ireland  by  foreign  settlers  seemed  necessary  to  the  well- 
being  of  Ireland  herself,  and  a  policy  of  the  first  importance 
to  the  State ;  why,  from  the  days  of  Mary  Tudor  to  those  of 
Cromwell,  the  confiscation  of  the  Irish  land  was  carried  out  as 
part  of  a  system  of  government ;  why  Protestant  Ascendency 
was  established  by  degrees,  and  Catholic  subjection  was  made 
more  and  more  complete.  The  atrocities,  the  crimes,  the 
follies,  the  wickedness,  which  took  place  during  this  long 
agony,  are  not,  indeed,  excused  by  reflections  like  these.  It  is 
impossible  to  justify  much  that  was  done  in  the  Desmond  and 
Tyrone  wars,  in  the  conflict  of  1 641-9,  in  the  Cromwellian 
Conquest  and  the  settlement  of  the  land,  in  the  struggle  of 
1689-91 ;  and  not  to  speak  of  numberless  things  of  the  kind, 
the  rapacity,  the  guilt,  and  the  systematic  cruelty  of  many 
Tudor  and  Stuart  Viceroys,  the  greed  and  tyranny  of  successive 
swarms  of  colonists,  the  perfidy  of  Charles  I  and  of  Charles  II, 
and  the  conduct  of  the  warring  races  and  faiths  of  Ireland,  in 
instances  unhappily  too  frequent,  deserve  to  be  severely 
condemned.  Still  circumstance,  superior  to  the  will  of  man, 
does  account  for  much  that  is  most  deplorable  in  the  melan- 
choly drama  of  Irish  History,  and  that  almost  from  the 
beginning  to  the  end.  Not  the  least  remarkable  fact,  in  the 
course  of  events,  was  that  England  was,  in  the  main,  Teutonic, 
and  Ireland,  in  the  main,  Celtic;  few  races  present  more 
striking  features  of  contrast,  or  have  found  it  more  difficult  to 
agree,  when  one  is  dominant  and  the  other  subject. 

The  Irish  Parliament  was  convened  a  few  months  after  the 
fall  of  Limerick.  Every  Catholic  had  been  shut  out  from  it 
by  an  Act  recently  passed  by  the  English  Parliament ;  in  the 
existing  condition  of  Ireland,  indeed,  the  precaution  probably 
was  superfluous.  The  men  at  the  Castle,  we  have  seen,  were 
on  the  look-out  for  forfeitures;  the  dominant  Protestant  caste 


VII.]      TJie  Period  of  the  Penal  Laivs  in  Ireland.      201 

was  smarting  from  the  effects  of  wrongs  done  in  the  late  years 
of  trouble ;  the  short-lived  ascendency  of  the  Irish  Catholics 
had  been  followed  by  their  defeat  and  ruin ;  and  Catholic 
Ireland  was  in  the  grasp  of  her  conquerors.  A  furious  outcry 
arose  in  the  Irish  Parliament  against  the  article,  in  what  was 
now  known  by  the  pacific  name  of  the  Treaty  of  Limerick, 
which  assured  Catholic  owners  their  estates,  in  the  counties 
"under  the  protection  of  the  Irish  army";  this,  we  have 
seen,  was  ratified  by  William  III,  under  peculiar  circum- 
stances, by  his  positive  order;  but  the  concession  was 
denounced  as  an  act  of  treason  to  the  State.  The  king, 
indeed,  had,  for  some  time,  as  was  to  be  expected  from  his 
well-known  character  and  tendency  to  toleration  in  religious 
matters,  been  trying  to  do  justice  to  the  Irish  Catholics;  he 
had  already  caused  the  lands  of  some  to  be  restored ;  he  had, 
in  fact,  offered  them  terms,  before  Aghrim,  much  more 
favourable  than  those  agreed  to. at  Limerick.  Nothing,  how- 
ever, could  stop  the  Assembly  in  Dublin ;  it  quarrelled  with 
Lord  Sidney,  who  had  been  made  Lord  Lieutenant,  and 
repudiated  every  part  of  his  master's  policy ;  and  Sidney  was 
compelled  at  last  to  prorogue  and  dissolve  it,  for  it  had 
assumed  an  attitude,  on  a  grave  question,  the  subject,  in  after 
years,  of  angry  disputes,  in  which  it  asserted  a  right  denied  to 
it  at  Westminster.  A  short  interval  of  comparative  peace 
followed ;  during  this  time  William  continued  to  give  back 
parts  of  their  lands  to  some  Catholic  owners ;  but  unfortu- 
nately he  lavished  enormous  grants  of  land,  forfeited  in  the 
late  war,  on  favourites,  courtiers,  and  Dutch  soldiers,  after  the 
bad  fashion  of  Charles  II.  The  English  Parliament  took  the 
matter  in  hand;  condemned  the  conduct  of  the  king  in  no 
measured  terms ;  and  ultimately  insisted  that  the  forfeited 
lands  should  be  resumed,  and  disposed  of  anew.  The  Irish 
Parliament,  meanwhile,  had  assembled  again ;  William,  from 
what  motive  is  not  known,  consented  that  a  Bill,  confirming 


202  Ireland.  [Chap. 

the  Treaty  of  Limerick,  should  not  contain  the  important  words, 
on  which  he  had  himself  insisted ;  and  Catholic  owners,  whose 
rights  had  been  saved,  as  being  "  under  the  protection  of  the 
Irish  army,"  were  left  naked  and  defenceless  before  their  foes. 
It  was  a  grave  breach  of  faith  on  the  part  of  the  king,  even  if 
he  was  not,  perhaps,  wholly  a  free  agent;  but  William,  if  a 
great,  was  not  a  scrupulous  statesman ;  and  it  is  to  the  honour 
of  the  Irish  House  of  Lords,  that  it  passed  the  Bill  by  a 
majority  of  one  vote  only.  But  hundreds  of  Catholic  owners 
were  nevertheless  despoiled;  the  iniquities  of  the  "Graces," 
and  of  the  Acts  of  Settlement,  were  unhappily  repeated,  with 
the  attendant  evils. 

The  Treaty  of  Limerick  had  thus  been  broken ;  it  was 
violated  afterwards  in  a  much  worse  fashion.  By  another 
article — and  respecting  this  no  doubt  can  exist  as  to  the  words 
that  were  used — it  was  provided,  we  have  said,  that  the  Irish 
Catholics  should  possess  the  same  rights  "in  the  exercise  of 
their  religion,"  as  the  law  allowed,  and  as  they  "  enjoyed  in  the 
reign  of  Charles  II."  Though  they  had  been  subjected  to 
many  gaUing  tests,  they  had  been  practically  little  molested  in 
their  faith, — passing  over  the  persecution  of  Cromwell — especi- 
ally in  the  reign  of  Charles  referred  to.  But  England  was 
incensed  with  Catholic  Ireland ;  the  Parhament  at  Westminster 
was  enacting  most  cruel  laws  against  the  EngUsh  Catholics; 
and  the  colonists  in  Ireland  had  but  one  thought,  that  of 
trampling  down  their  abhorred  enemies.  With  the  approbation 
of  the  English  Parhament,  and  of  a  long  succession  of  British 
statesmen,  the  Irish  Parliament,  from  this  time  forward,  and 
during  a  period  of  many  years,  extending  far  into  the  eighteenth 
century,  passed  laws  levelled  at  the  Irish  Catholics,  which  not 
only  cast  the  Treaty  of  Limerick  to  the  winds  and  placed 
their  faith  under  an  odious  ban,  bat  directly  aimed  at  de- 
priving them  of  almost  all  rights,  political,  civil,  nay  of  a  social 
kind,  and  at  degrading  them  into  a  mere  race  of  Helots.     We 


vn.]      The  Period  of  the  Penal  Laws  in  Ireland,      203 

cannot  dwell  in  detail  on  the  execrable  Penal  Code  ^  we  can 
only  glance  at  its  most  salient  features.  After  the  forfeitures 
of  the  reign  of  William  III,  on  a  final  adjustment  made  by 
the  English  Parliament,  about  300,000  acres  of  the  Irish  land 
had  been  given  back  to  their  old  possessors;  about  800,000 
had  been  bestowed  on  new  men,  largely  EngUsh  absentees; 
and  probably  not  more  than  one-eighth  of  the  Irish  soil,  after 
the  confiscations  of  a  century  and  a  half,  remained  in  the 
hands  of  Irish  Catholic  owners,  whether  of  the  old  Englishry, 
or  of  the  Celtic  race.  It  was  the  first  object,  however,  of  the 
Penal  Code,  and  of  its  authors  the  ruling  Protestant  caste,  to 
divorce  the  Catholics  as  completely  as  possible  from  the  land, 
the  source  of  wealth  and  political  power,  and  to  deprive  them 
even  of  the  remnant  they  still  retained,  after  the  wrongs  they 
had  endured  for  ages.  To  effect  this  purpose  the  Irish 
Catholic  was  disabled  from  acquiring  the  ownership  of  land, 
or  even  from  having  an  incumbrance  on  it ;  the  only  tenure  of 
land  he  could  obtain,  was  a  short  leasehold  at  a  rack  rent,  a 
tenure  obviously  designed  for  humble  peasants ;  and,  at  the 
same  time,  the  few  Catholics  who  had  preserved  their  estates, 
were  compelled  to  allow  them  to  be  split  in  fragments,  and  to 
"  gavel "  among  their  children  at  death,  the  idea  being  that,  by 
this  provision,  their  "  properties  would  soon  crumble  away  and 
disappear."  Other  laws,  all  with  the  same  fell  purpose,  but 
some  inspired  by  evil  malice  and  hate,  were  passed  to  complete 
this  exclusion  from  the  land.  A  Catholic  estate  was  not  to 
'*  gavel,"  should  the  eldest  son  conform  to  the  dominant  faith ; 

1  Vincent  Scully  on  the  Penal  Code  is  a  book  of  some  research. 
Howard's  Fopeiy  Cases  will  be  read  with  profit.  Burke's  Tracts  on  the 
Popery  Laios,  though  mere  incomplete  sketches,  bear  the  marks  of  his 
philosophic  and  masterly  hand.  The  Irelande  politique,  soctale,  et 
religieuse  of  De  Beaumont  is  worth  careful  study.  An  excellent  dissertation 
on  the  Irish  Penal  Code  will  be  found  in  Mr  Lecky's  England  in  the 
Eighteenth  Century,  vol.  i.  chap.  2;  vol.  ii.  chap.  7. 


204  Ireland.  [Chap. 

a  Protestant  man  or  woman,  who  married  a  Catholic,  was 
subject,  if  an  owner  of  land,  to  the  Code ;  the  eldest  son  of  a 
Catholic  owner,  who  became  a  Protestant,  was  given  a  right  to 
reduce  his  father's  fee  simple  to  a  life  interest,  and  to  possess 
himself  of  the  expectant  estate  ;  a  wife  or  child,  tempted  to  the 
same  apostasy,  was  entitled  to  an  immediate  provision  from 
the  land,  and  was  removed  from  the  control  of  the  head  of  the 
family. 

The  second  great  object  of  the  Penal  Code  was  to  shut  out 
the  Irish  Catholic  from  any  place  of  trust  in  the  State,  nay 
from  the  pale  of  civiUsed  life.  He  had  been  forbidden,  we 
have  seen,  to  have  a  seat  in  his  country's  Parliament ;  he  was 
ere  long  deprived  of  the  elective  suffrage;  he  was  excluded 
''from  the  corporations,  from  the  magistracy,  from  the  Bar, 
from  the  Bench,  from  the  County  Grand  Juries,  even  from  the 
Parish  Vestries";  he  could  not  "be  a  sheriff,  a  solicitor,  a 
gamekeeper,  a  constable."  The  proscription  went  even  lower 
down ;  the  Irish  Catholic  could  not  serve  in  the  Army  or  on 
the  Fleet;  he  could  not  possess  any  arms  or  weapons;  he  was, 
in  a  word,  "  only  recognised  by  law  for  repression  and  punish- 
ment," and  disentitled  to  nearly  all  the  rights  of  a  freeman. 
And  while  this  people  of  Pariahs,  who,  be  it  observed,  formed 
the  overwhelming  majority  of  the  community  as  a  whole,  "was 
excluded,  in  its  own  country,  from  almost  every  profession  and 
from  every  Government  office,  from  the  highest  to  the  lowest," 
the  Code  went  out  of  its  way,  so  to  speak,  to  humiliate  the 
whole  body  of  the  Irish  Catholics,  to  degrade  them,  in  a  word, 
to  the  position  of  outcasts.  It  is  unnecessary  to  point  out  how 
the  laws  as  to  the  land  could  make  the  life  of  a  Catholic  owner 
wretched ;  a  rebellious  son,  an  adulterous  wife  could  defy  his 
authority  and  simply  rob  him ;  and  it  should  be  added  that, 
even  in  his  dying  hour,  he  could  not  commit  his  children  to 
the  care  of  a  guardian  of  his  own  faith ;  he  was  compelled  to 
devolve  this  trust  on  a  Protestant.     Other  provisions  of  the 


VII. J      TJie  Period  of  the  Penal  Laws  in  Ireland.      205 

Code  were,  perhaps,  even  worse  :  the  intermarriage  of  Catholics 
and  Protestants  was  made  almost  a  crime — a  law  like  the 
barbarous  medieval  statutes,  which  forbade  a  Saxon  to  wed  a 
Celt;  the  Catholic  was  not  allowed  to  educate  a  child  in  a 
Catholic  school,  at  home  or  abroad ;  the  University  of  Dublin 
shut  her  gates  on  him ;  he  could  not,  however  high  his  degree, 
possess  a  horse  worth  more  than  ^5  ;  in  many  instances  he  was 
made  liable  to  pay  a  disproportionate  amount  of  taxes,  and 
other  imposts  of  a  similar  kind.  In  short,  he  was  insulted,  as 
well  as  injured,  in  every  walk  of  life ;  he  was  described  as  the 
"  Common  Popish  Enemy  "  in  many  statutes,  and  in  speeches 
of  Viceroys,  and  in  the  Irish  Parliament ;  it  was  even  solemnly 
laid  down  from  the  Bench  of  Justice,  "that  his  existence  in 
Ireland  was  not  to  be  presumed." 

The  last  great  object  of  the  Penal  Code  was  to  destroy  the 
organisation  of  the  Church  of  the  Irish  Catholics,  and  to  make 
their  religion  a  by- word  and  a  reproach.  "Catholic  arch- 
bishops, bishops,  deans,  and  vicars  general "  were  doomed  to 
exile;  if  they  returned  to  Ireland  they  were  guilty  of  high 
treason,  and  Hable  to  the  frightful  penalties  annexed  to  the 
crime.  The  same  law  was  applied  to  the  regular  clergy; 
monks,  friars,  and  even  nuns  could  not  remain  in  Ireland ;  if 
they  did  they  carried  their  lives  in  their  hands.  The  Mass  was 
not  proscribed,  as  in  the  days  of  Cromwell ;  the  Irish,  it  was 
felt,  must  have  some  religion ;  but  the  old  statutes  of  EHzabeth 
remained  in  force ;  new  laws  greatly  increased  their  stringency. 
Catholic  priests  were  allowed  to  do  their  office,  provided  their 
names  were  placed  in  a  register  of  the  State,  and  that  they 
took  an  oath  of  abjuration  which,  by  degrees,  was  made  so 
iniquitous  that  they  could  not  take  it :  if  these  conditions  were 
not  observed  they  might  lawfully  be  expelled  from  Ireland,  and 
hanged  as  malefactors  should  they  return.  The  Catholic 
ritual  and  worship  were  deliberately  banned ;  a  priest,  though 
registered,  "  could  not  have  a  curate ;  no  chapel  could  have  a 


206  Ireland.  [Chap. 

steeple  or  bells ;  no  cross  could  be  publicly  erected,  pil- 
grimages to  holy  wells  were  even  forbidden " ;  the  penalty,  in 
default  of  payment  of  a  fine,  "was  the  degrading  one  of 
whipping."  In  a  word,  the  most  cherished  observances  of  a 
great  and  ancient  Church  were  prohibited  and  even  made 
criminal ;  and  detestable  encouragement  was  given  by  the  law 
to  bribe  the  Catholic  priest  to  renounce  his  faith,  and  to 
punish  him  should  he  attempt  to  make  a  proselyte.  Looking 
at  the  Code  as  a  whole,  Burke  wrote  the  simple  truth,  when  he 
described  it^  as  "a  complete  system  full  of  coherence  and 
consistency  in  all  its  parts,  a  machine  of  wise  and  elaborate 
contrivance,  and  as  well  fitted  for  the  oppression,  impoverish- 
ment and  degradation  of  a  people,  and  the  debasement  in 
them  of  human  nature  itself,  as  ever  proceeded  from  the 
perverted  ingenuity  of  man." 

Such  were  the  methods  devised  to  make  the  system  of 
Protestant  Ascendency  secure  in  Ireland,  to  stereotype  it,  so 
to  speak,  in  the  land,  and  to  place  a  Catholic  people  in 
enduring  bondage.  It  is  a  mistake  to  suppose  that  the  Penal 
Code  was  not  enforced,  and  was  a  complete  failure ;  its  terrors 
caused  many  Catholics  of  the  higher  orders  to  conform  to  Pro- 
testantism, or  to  make  the  pretence ;  they  could  not  otherwise 
call  themselves  freemen  ;  nay,  could  hardly  exist  in  their  own 
country.  The  nobler  spirits,  however,  of  the  proscribed  com- 
munion took  refuge  on  the  Continent,  and  joined  the  crowd  of 
Irish  exiles,  who,  since  the  days  of  Tyrone,  had  been  scattered 
over  many  lands,  united  in  hatred  of  England  and  her  power. 
We  cannot  attempt  to  enumerate  the  names,  still  less  to 
describe  the  brilliant  careers,  of  the  Catholic  Irish,  of  either 
race,  who  won  honour  for  themselves,  in  war  or  in  peace,  in 
the  service  of  states  which  bade  the  strangers  welcome.  A 
branch  of  the  old  race  of  Offaley  became  the  Condes  of  Ofelia 

^  Burke's  letter  to  Sir  Hercules  Langrishe.    Works.    Cited  by  Mr  Lecky, 
History  of  England  in  the  Eighteenth  Centnry^  Vol.  I.  302. 


VII.]      TJie  Period  of  the  Penal  Laws  in  Ireland,      207 

in  Spain:  more  than  one  chief  of  the  O'Neills  and  the 
O'Donnells  found  distinguished  places  in  the  Spanish  army; 
other  eminent  Spanish  soldiers  were  Irish.  The  Austrian  and 
even  the  Russian  armies  had,  also^  great  Irishmen  among  their 
leaders;  Browne,  who  would  have  triumphed  at  Prague,  had 
he  been  in  command ;  Lacy,  who  discomfited  Frederick  the 
Great,  on  the  theatre  of  the  operations  of  1866-;  a  second [/T'^/^y] 
Browne  and  Lacy  honoured  by  the  Czars ;  Maguire  and 
Nugent  illustrious  in  a  subsequent  age.  But  France  was  the 
chief  home  of  the  exiles;  her  armies  were  filled  with  Irish 
officers,  conspicuous  on  many  a  field  of  fame ;  O'Brien,  Lord 
Clare,  decided  the  result  at  Fontenoy ;  Lally  at  Wandewash 
fought  with  heroic  valour.  Nor  should  history  pass  over  the 
great  deeds  of  the  generations  of  Irish  soldiers,  who,  low  as 
their  station  was,  made  their  country  renowned  in  the  records 
of  more  than  one  Continental  service.  Here  again  France 
played  the  principal  part:  the  "wild  geese,"  as  they  were 
fancifully  called,  flew  in  thousands  from  Ireland,  to  join  her 
armies ;  in  less  than  a  century,  it  has  been  said,  a  quarter  of  a 
million  of  Irish  recruits  found  a  place  in  her  celebrated  Irish 
Brigade;  and  they  amply  justified  the  noble  words,  "Semper 
at  ubique  fideles "  inscribed  on  their  banners.  They  turned 
the  scale  at  Almanza  and  Fontenoy;  at  Dettingen  extorted 
from  George  II  the  bitter  words,  "curse  on  the  laws  that 
deprive  me  of  such  men  " ;  won  the  admiration  of  Villars,  of 
Berwick,  of  Vendome,  of  Saxe,  in  many  a  well-contested  cam- 
paign ;  and,  whether  in  good  or  in  evil  fortune,  were  always 
among  the  best  troops  of  France. 

The  history,  in  fact,  of  Catholic  Ireland  is  largely  that  of 
those  courageous  exiles,  during  this  dismal  part  of  the  eighteenth 
century.  As  for  the  Catholic  Irish  who  remained  at  home, 
the  consequences  of  the  Penal  Code  were,  in  the  main,  such  as 
its  authors  had  hoped  for.  The  few  Catholic  owners  of  land 
who  survived,  whether  of  Anglo-Norman  or  Celtic  descent. 


2o8  Ireland.  [Chap. 

sank  gradually  into  poverty  and  despair;  their  existence  was 
one  of  continual  alarm  and  wretchedness.  Involved  as  they 
were  in  a  common  ruin,  old  distinctions  of  race  had  almost 
disappeared ;  the  sons  of  the  Barons  of  the  Pale  and  of  Celtic 
Princes  were  equally  despised  and  degraded  Pariahs ;  they 
vegetated  listlessly  on  the  ancestral  estates,  which  the  law  was 
filching  from  them  by  degrees,  excluded  from  power  and  place 
in  the  State,  defeated  and  broken  down  in  the  battle  of  life, 
insulted  and  oppressed  even  by  the  refuse  of  the  dominant 
caste  which  had  been  made  their  masters.  Their  lives,  too, 
were  a  round  of  anxiety  and  pain ;  they  were  beset  by  detest- 
able harpies  of  the  law,  picking  flaws  in  their  titles,  like  the 
old  "  discoverers,"  and  informing  against  them  in  the  Courts  of 
Justice,  if  such  a  name  could  be  given  to  these;  their  foes 
were  often  those  of  their  own  households ;  their  feelings  were 
tortured,  their  families  rent  in  twain,  in  the  most  ordinary 
relations  of  domestic  life.  Passing  from  this  order  of  men,  the 
Irish  Catholic  was  not  actually  forbidden  to  trade ;  but  he  was 
shut  out  from  the  municipal  bodies,  which  had  great  advan- 
tages in  this  respect,  and  even  from  many  corporate  towns ;  he 
was  subjected  to  all  kinds  of  unfair  restrictions;  and  though 
many  of  the  class  did  engage  in  commerce,  and  even 
acquired  wealth  in  time,  they  were  not  numerous  enough  to 
make  their  influence  felt,  during  the  first  half  of  the  eighteenth 
century.  As  for  the  Catholic  masses  seated  on  the  soil,  they 
were  the  villeins  and  serfs  of  conquering  settlers,  alien  in  blood 
and  creed,  and  for  the  most  part  hostile ;  and  prohibited  as 
they  were  from  holding  land,  except  by  a  tenure  of  the  worst 
kind,  they  were  reduced  to  a  multitude  of  petty  occupiers, 
discouraged  in  their  industry,  kept  down  through  life,  unable 
to  improve  their  lands  and  themselves,  and  sinking  into 
appalling  poverty.  Oppression  and  exaction  on  the  part  of 
the  ruling  class,  the  degradation  and  misery  of  the  subject  race 
were  the  necessary  results   of  this  state  of  things.     Ireland, 


VII.]      The  Period  of  the  Penal  Laws  in  Ireland.      209 

Swift  tells  us,  was,  even  in  his  time,  a  land  of  desolation  and 
widespread  ruiji ;  and  it  was  a  land  of  ever-recurring  famines, 
in  which  the  peasantry  perished  in  thousands.  As  regards 
Catholic  Ireland  as  a  whole,  the  law  and  everything  pertaining 
to  it  had  been  made  its  most  deadly  enemy;  and  a  just 
Nemesis  brought  the  inevitable  results.  To  the  train  of 
feehngs  produced  by  the  Penal  Code  we  must  largely  attribute 
the  hatred  of  law,  the  dislike  of  the  existing  order  of  things, 
the  dread  of  the  Government,  the  jealous  suspicion  of  the 
administration  of  justice,  in  all  its  parts,  the  undefined,  but 
not  the  less  real  discontent  which  prevailed  in  Catholic 
Ireland  even  in  recent  times,  and  has  by  no  means  altogether 
disappeared. 

The  Penal  Code  drew  an  impassable  gulf  between  the 
Protestant  and  the  Catholic  Irish ;  but,  if  Lazarus  had  the  evil 
things  of  this  world,  many  of  the  good  things  were  lost  to  Dives. 
A  system  of  legislation  which  placed  society,  already  distorted 
by  long  misgovernment,  upon  a  false  and  unnatural  basis, 
which  forbade  kindly  relations  to  grow  up  between  the  divided 
orders  of  a  whole  community,  and  which  checked  the  develop- 
ment of  industry  and  wealth,  could  not  fail  to  react  with  evil 
effects  on  the  classes  themselves  which  it  seemed  to  favour. 
Protestant  Ireland  did  not  thrive  under  the  scheme  of  injustice 
which  made  it  the  tyrant  of  Catholic  slaves;  and  special  causes 
worked  in  the  same  direction.  The  Protestant  owners  of  land 
being  unable  to  sell  to  Catholics,  or  to  borrow  money  from 
them,  their  estates  were  kept  in  a  kind  of  mortmain,  out  of 
commerce,  and  not  supplied  by  capital ;  and  for  this  and  other 
reasons  they  were  usually  not  wealthy.  Hundreds  of  the  order, 
too,  were  mere  absentees,  and  absenteeism  enormously  in- 
creased, owing  to  circumstances  we  shall  briefly  glance  at. 
Numbers  of  landlords  let  their  lands  on  long  leases  to 
persons  of  their  own  faith,  who  had  a  monopoly  of  the 
market,  and  paid  but  nominal  rents.     This  body  of  men,  the 

M.  I.  14 


210  Ireland.  [Chap. 

notorious  middlemen,  neither  landlords  nor  tenants  in  a  true 
sense,  generally  sublet  their  holdings  three  or  four  deep ;  they 
were  the  worst   oppressors  of  the  Catholic  peasant ;   and  a 
gradation  of  tenures  was  thus  created,  which  meshed  the  land, 
so  to  speak,  in  destructive  shackles,  prohibiting  improvement 
and   secure   possession.     Added   to   the   degradation   of    the 
Catholic  occupant,  these  facts,  and  others  to  be  referred  to, 
were  the  principal  causes  that  Ireland  made  little  or  no  pro- 
gress for  a  long  series  of  years  \  that  barrenness  and  misery 
seemed  stamped  on  her  soil ;  that  the  whole  dominant  caste  was 
not  prosperous.     The  same  things  were  observed  in  the  sphere 
of  commerce,  though  here  restriction,  we  shall  see,  had  far- 
reaching   effects ;    the   privileges    enjoyed   by   the   Protestant 
trader  were  injurious  to  him  in  the  highest  degree,  starved  the 
very  trade  he  considered  his  own,  made  him  slothful,  careless, 
and  neglectful  of  his  business.    So  it  was  in  agriculture,  in  which 
the  Protestant  had  advantages  denied  to  the  Catholic  tenant ; 
this  had  a  tendency  to  encourage  neglect  and  idleness,  the 
natural  result  of  unfair  monopoly.     The  Penal  Code,  however, 
was  most  pernicious  to  Protestant  Ireland  in  its  moral  effects.    It 
cut  off  the  upper  classes  from  those  beneath  them,  made  them 
domineering,  harsh,  exacting,  like  the  French  seigneurs  of  the 
old  regime)  it  created  habits  of  extravagance,  of  lawlessness, 
of  licentious  recklessness,  attended  with    the   most  unhappy 
results.     Its  influence  was  even  worse  in  the  lower  ranks  of 
Protestants;    it   marked   them   off   as   an   overbearing  class, 
encouraged  to  oppress  and  vex  the  Catholics  in  their  midst,  it 
made  them  insolent,  conceited,  and  more  deserving  of  dislike 
than  their  betters.     Demoralisation,  profound  but  subtle,  and 
pervading  the  social  structure  from  top  to  bottom,  was,  in  a 
word,  the  effect  of  the  Penal  Code,  as  regards  the  whole  people 
of  Protestant  Ireland. 

England,  too,  made  the  Protestant  colony  feel  that  it  was  a 
subject  settlement  to  be  treated  with  contempt;  the  injurious 


vii.J      TJie  Period  of  the  Penal  Laws  in  Ireland.      211 

consequences  soon  became  manifest.  We  have  referred  to  the 
commercial  restrictions  of  the  reign  of  Charles  II ;  these  were 
greatly  aggravated  in  the  reigns  that  followed.  Ireland  con- 
tinued to  be  excluded  from  the  Navigation  Acts,  and  was  still 
prohibited  to  send  live  animals  and  even  meat  to  England, 
— checks  on  her  industry  which  did  increasing  mischief  as  the 
land  became,  by  degrees,  more  settled.  Her  woollen  manu- 
facture, however,  remained ;  and  as  Irish  wool  was  of  the  very 
best  quality,  a  large  capital  was  attracted  to  this  branch  of 
trade,  and  numbers  of  artisans  found  employment  in  it.  English 
jealousy  destroyed  this  promising  growth ;  the  Irish  woollen 
manufacture  was  suppressed ;  Ireland  was  forbidden  to  export 
the  raw  material  to  any  country,  except  England ;  even  her 
linen  manufacture  was  discouraged  and  starved.  The  results 
were,  in  the  highest  degree,  unfortunate ;  the  land  was  smitten, 
as  it  were,  with  a  blight ;  the  development  of  its  resources  was 
stopped;  and  thousands  of  Protestant  settlers  left  the  island, 
like  the  Englishry  of  medieval  times,  flying  from  a  land  where 
they  could  not  exist.  In  many  other  respects  the  dominant 
caste  was  injured  and  oppressed  by  the  mother  country.  The 
Parliament  of  Westminster,  we  have  seen,  had,  long  ago, 
asserted  a  right  to  enact  laws  that  affected  Ireland;  it  "de- 
clared" that  right  by  a  positive  statute,  and  exercised  it  over 
and  over  again ;  and  it  reduced  the  Irish  Parliament  to  a  mere 
vestry  by  methods  we  shall  soon  briefly  mention.  Meanwhile 
"the  English  interest"  was  supreme  at  the  Castle;  nearly  every 
high  place  in  the  Government,  the  Anglican  Church,  and  the 
Law,  was  filled  by  Englishmen,  with  w^atchful  care;  the 
Protestants  of  Ireland  were  practically  shut  out  by  a  narrow, 
domineering,  and  harsh  bureaucracy  composed  mainly  of 
English  functionaries.  At  the  same  time  the  scanty  resources 
of  Ireland  were  charged  with  an  ever-augmented  list  of  pensions, 
often  of  the  most  scandalous  kind ;  if  Parliamentary  corruption 
did  not  as  yet  flourish,  it  was  because  the  necessity  had  not 

14 — 2 


212  Ireland.  [Chap. 

arrived ;  and  die  men  in  office  gave  a  free  rein  to  favouritism, 
to  jobbing,  to  maladministration,  to  waste,  in  every  department 
of  the  public  service.  A  cause  of  disunion  had  arisen,  also, 
which  seriously  weakened  the  Protestant  colony.  So  far 
back,  we  have  seen,  as  the  time  of  Strafford,  and  still  more 
after  the  Restoration,  Presbyterianism  in  Ireland  had  been 
discouraged ;  it  was  gradually  subjected  to  a  kind  of  proscrip- 
tion, for,  strange  to  say,  Irish  Anglican  Churchmen,  almost  the 
only  members  of  the  Irish  Parliament,  appear  to  have  regarded 
it  with  peculiar  dislike.  The  Irish  Presbyterians,  who  formed 
the  best  element  of  the  Protestant  population  of  Ulster,  were 
excluded  from  office  in  the  State  by  strict  tests;  even  their 
creed  received  toleration  only.  The  injury  done  to  them  was 
as  nothing  compared  to  the  iniquities  of  the  Penal  Code ;  but 
it  divided  the  Protestant  name  in  Ireland;  it  caused  many 
Presbyterians  to  quit  the  island,  in  an  emigration  prolonged  for 
years  ;  and  it  drew  a  line,  in  landed  relations  in  Ulster,  between 
the  Anglican  owner  of  the  soil  and  the  Presbyterian  occupant, 
which  caused  many  evils,  and  is  still  distinctly  marked. 

"Protestant  Ireland,"  it  was  finely  said  by  Grattan,  thus 
''knelt  to  England  on  the  necks  of  her  countrymen."  The 
condition  of  affairs  we  have  shortly  described  appeared  in  the 
institutions  of  the  land,  and  throughout  the  frame  of  Irish 
society.  The  Irish  Parliament  had,  by  this  time,  reached  the 
fullest  proportions  it  ever  attained ;  its  House  of  Commons  was 
composed  of  300  members,  a  number  of  small  boroughs  having 
been  created,  in  addition  to  the  forty  of  James  I.  As  a 
representative  Body  this  House  of  Commons  existed,  so  to  speak, 
only  in  name  ;  it  had  nothing  to  do  with  Catholic  Ireland,  save 
to  oppress  it  and  do  it  wrong ;  it  was  elected  by  small  bodies 
of  the  Protestant  caste ;  and  it  was  filled  by  nominees  of  the 
Crown  which,  as  yet,  had  a  large  majority  of  votes,  and  by 
dependents  of  the  colonial  aristocratic  Houses  which  possessed 
the  chief  part  of  the  land  of  the  country.    Though  still  fettered 


VII.]      The  Period  of  the  Penal  Laivs  in  Ireland.      213 

by  Poynings'  Law,  the  Irish  Parliament  had,  by  degrees, 
acquired  an  initiative  in  legislation,  in  a  qualified  sense;  the 
Viceroy  had  ceased  to  command  what  it  was  to  enact  before- 
hand ;  and  it  had  been  permitted  for  a  long  time  to  present 
what  were  called  "Heads  of  Bills"  to  him,  and  thus  to  discuss 
future  laws  within  its  precincts.  But  these  Heads  of  Bills  had 
to  pass  through  the  ordeal  of  the  criticism  of  the  Irish  and  the 
English  Privy  Councils ;  they  could  be  amended  or  changed  by 
these ;  the  English  Privy  Council  could  throw  out  any  proposi- 
tions of  the  kind;  and  any  "  Heads  of  Bills"  it  returned  to  the 
Irish  Parliament  could  be  only  passed  or  rejected  by  that 
Assembly,  however  they  might  have  been  transformed  or 
altered.  As  a  Legislature  the  Irish  Parliament  was  thus  a  mere 
shadow ;  and  in  most  other  respects  it  had  little  power  or 
influence.  It  was  overborne  by  the  English  Parliament,  which 
bound  Ireland  by  laws  passed  at  Westminster ;  its  House  of 
Lords  was  not  even  a  Court  of  ultimate  appeal.  It  had  little 
control  over  the  finances  of  Ireland,  for  the  hereditary  revenues 
of  the  Crown,  which  it  could  not  touch  or  regulate,  were 
nearly  sufficient  to  supply  the  wants  of  the  Government,  at 
least  for  a  considerable  time ;  and  though  the  Irish  House  of 
Commons  claimed  a  right  to  propose  and  to  enact  Money 
Bills,  and  to  be  the  only  body  that  could  lawfully  tax  Ireland, 
the  first  claim  was  subject  to  the  Law  of  Poynings,  and  the 
second  was  regarded  with  dislike  in  England.  The  Irish 
Parliament,  besides,  had  no  power  over  the  military  force 
within  Ireland ;  this  was  under  the  Mutiny  Acts  of  England ; 
and  it  should  be  added  that  as  the  Triennial  and  the  Septennial 
Acts  did  not  extend  to  Ireland,  the  Irish  ParHament  continued 
to  exist  during  the  whole  reign  of  the  Sovereign  on  the  throne, 
and  could  be  dissolved  only  on  a  demise  of  the  Crown.  An 
Assembly  so  devoid  of  every  popular  element,  standing  on  so 
narrow  and  false  a  basis,  so  exposed  to  sinister  and  evil 
influence,  so  cabined  and  confined  at  every  point,  so  maimed 


214  Ireland.  [Chap. 

and  limited  in  authority,  was  obviously  a  bad  organ  of  Govern- 
ment, and  was  little  respected  even  by  Protestant  Ireland. 
The  Irish  Parliament  was  held  up  by  Swift '  to  execration  and 
contemptuous  scorn. 

From  the  Parliament  we  pass  to  the  Anglican  Church  in 
Ireland,  which  we  have  left  out  of  sight  for  a  considerable  time. 
This  Estabhshment,  as  it  was  now  sometimes  called,  had 
undergone  some  changes  in  the  course  of  a  century,  but  its 
essential  characteristics  remained  nearly  the  same.  It  had 
been  adorned  by  a  few  eminent  Prelates ;  Ussher  and  Bedell 
in  the  seventeenth  century.  King,  Browne,  and  Synge  in  the 
next  age  were  in  different  ways  distinguished  men ;  and 
Berkeley,  illuslrioiis  in  many  spheres  of  letters,  was,  as  a 
thinker,  hardly  inferior  to  Butler  in  his  admirable  writings  on 
the  Christian  faith.  But  Swift's  description  of  the  Irish  Bishops 
of  his  time — English  highwaymen  who  had  stolen  the  Episcopal 
robes — if  a  caricature,  is  not  wholly  false;  not  a  few  of  the 
heads  of  the  Irish  Establishment  were  self-seeking,  hard, 
worldly-minded  men,  such  as  an  institution  would  naturally 
produce  which  was  not  a  living  Christian  reality,  and  not 
strong  with  true  spiritual  strength.  At  this  period  the  Irish 
Anglican  Church  had  become  more  than  ever  an  instrument  of 
the  State;  two  of  its  Archbishops,  Boulter  and  Stone,  were 
rulers  at  the  Castle  for  many  years,  and,  in  fact,  directed  Irish 
affairs ;  but,  as  we  have  seen,  it  had  shared  the  fortunes  of 
Protestant  Ireland,  in  some  respects,  and  all  its  best  prefer- 
ments were  held  by  Englishmen.  For  the  rest  it  still  was  what 
it  had  always  been,  a  secular  rather  than  a  spiritual  arm,  a 
Protestant  outpost,  so  to  speak,  planted  in  the  midst  of  Catholic 
Ireland,  without  the  slightest  moral  influence  on  it,  a  mere 
source  of  irritation,  and  a  badge  of  conquest ;  and  it  had  little 

"I  -^  Swift,  however,  was  not  just  to  the  Irish  Parliament  or  the  Irish 
landlords  of  his  day.  He  was  a  high  Churchman,  and  they  treated  the 
Irish  Anglican  Church  with  no  favour. 


VII.]      The  Period  of  the  Penal  Laws  in  Ireland,      215 

hold  even  on  Protestant  Ireland,  for  like  other  institutions  that 
do  not  fulfil  their  purpose,  it  still  abounded  in  abuses  wide- 
spread and  flagrant.  It  was,  in  Macaulay's  picturesque  phrase, 
a  Church  that  filled  the  rich  with  good  things,  and  sent  the 
hungry  empty  away.  Its  bishops  wore  purple  and  fine  linen ; 
its  higher  dignitaries  formed  a  prosperous  gentry;  but  its  minor 
clergy  were  few  and  half  starved,  and  its  services  were  neglected 
in  most  parts  of  the  country.  Cathedrals  in  ruins,  churches  in 
decay,  whole  parishes  without  a  priest  or  a  curate,  scandals  of 
many  kinds  in  clerical  life,  disregard  of  duty  in  high  and  low 
places — these  were  still  the  visible  signs  of  the  Irish  Anglican 
Church;  Swift,  infinitely  the  keenest  observer  of  his  day, 
believed  that  its  fall  was  already  certain.  The  Church,  too,  it 
deserves  notice,  was  betrayed  and  injured  by  its  natural  friends; 
the  Irish  Parliament  and  the  owners  of  the  Irish  land  not  only 
treated  it  with  marked  contempt,  but  despoiled  it  of  a  large 
part  of  its  property.  In  one  respect  the  Irish  Anglican  Church 
harshly  oppressed  the  down-trodden  Catholic  peasant,  and  laid  a 
heavy  and  mischievous  burden  on  him.  It  possessed  the  greater 
part  of  the  tithe  of  the  country ;  its  ministers  levied  this 
impost  in  the  very  worst  way,  from  the  Helots  of  an  alien 
communion.  This  was  the  more  iniquitous,  because  pastoral 
lands  had  been  practically  discharged  of  tithe  by  a  series  of 
votes  of  the  Irish  Parliament ;  the  charge  was  laid  on  the  petty 
crop,  which  had  been  raised  by  the  Catholic  husbandmen. 
This  was  simply  shameful  and  grotesque  wrong;  as  Grattan 
said,  the  crook  of  the  so-called  shepherd  was  only  known  to 
the  flock  when  it  was  thrust  into  the  sheep. 

The  Irish  Catholic  Church  presented  a  striking  contrast  to 
its  pampered  rival.  It  lay,  so  to  speak,  in  the  valley  of  the 
shadow  of  death;  its  priesihood  were  the  despised  and 
rejected  of  men ;  yet  proscription  and  persecution  could  not 
destroy  the  spiritual  life  which  was  strong  in  it,  even  the  I 
organisation  which  upheld  its  structure.     It  no  longer  wore  the 


2l6  Ireland.  [Chap. 

arrogant  aspect  it  had  often  worn  in  the  seventeenth  century, 
especially  in  Catholic  Confederate  days;  but  it  retained  its 
hold  on  the  heart  of  Catholic  Ireland ;  it  represented  in  a  real 
sense  her  people ;  it  was  their  support  in  their  long  night  of 
affliction.  Its  clergy  were  ignorant,  nay,  superstitious,  as  a 
class ;  but  they  were  pious,  virtuous,  zealous  of  good  works ; 
in  this  period  of  trial  and  unceasing  sorrows  they  were 
gradually  working  a  moral  transformation  in  their  flocks,  and 
weaning  them  from  vices  common  to  Celts,  an  achievement 
deserving  the  highest  praise. 

We  turn  to  an  institution  of  a  very  different  kind,  at 
this  time  confined  to  Protestant  Ireland,  and  exhibiting 
the  effects  of  the  peculiar  position  made  by  England  for  her 
Protestant  colony.  The  Irish  Bench  and  Bar  had  played 
a  conspicuous  part  in  the  sixteenth  and  the  seventeenth 
centuries ;  both  were  virtually  open  to  all  Irishmen  without 
regard  to  distinctions  of  creed,  at  least  as  almost  a  general 
rule ;  both  could  show  a  noble  succession  of  lawyers  by  no 
means  inferior  to  their  English  brethren.  In  the  first  part  of 
the  eighteenth  century  the  profession  had  markedly  changed 
for  the  worse,  owing  to  the  operation  of  the  Penal  Code  and 
to  the  slights  from  which  Protestant  Ireland  suffered.  The 
Irish  Catholic  was  excluded  from  the  Bench  and  the  Bar, 
which  were  strictly  reserved  for  the  Protestant  caste ;  and  this 
monopoly  had  its  natural  results  in  checking  industry  and 
casting  a  blight  on  talent.  The  chief  places  too  on  the  Bench, 
we  have  seen,  were  in  all  cases  bestowed  on  Englishmen ;  the 
Castle  practically  ruled  the  Judges  and  the  Bar ;  and  it  should 
be  added  that  the  Irish  Judges  continued  to  hold  their  offices 
at  the  will  of  the  Crown  and  had  not  the  protection  secured 
for  their  fellows  in  England,  while  the  Habeas  Corpus  Act 
did  not  extend  to  Ireland.  All  this  made  the  Bench  and  Bar 
of  Ireland  comparatively  subservient,  degraded,  weak ;  the 
administration  too  of  the  inhuman  Penal  Code,  which  conse- 


VII.]      The  Period  of  the  Penal  Laws  in  Ireland.      217 

crated  wrong  in  the  name  of  justice,  had  a  tendency  in  the 
same  direction ;  Swift  and  even  Berkeley  had  no  respect  or 
liking  for  the  leading  men  of  the  gown  in  their  day.  Noble 
exceptions  nevertheless  existed ;  the  Irish  Bench  and  Bar  had 
some  eminent  names  even  in  this  season  of  dreary  eclipse. 
The  most  remarkable  of  these  was  Anthony  Malone,  a  scion 
of  the  old  race  of  Offaley,  already  conspicuous  for  his  tine 
parts,  and  soon  to  appear  brilliantly  on  the  political  scene. 

The  condition  of  Ireland  at  this  period  was  also  seen  on 
the  face  of  the  country.  Swift  has  informed  us  that  the 
ravage  done  by  the  war  of  1689-91  exceeded  that  done  from 
1641  to  1649;  if  this  is  an  exaggeration  we  may  believe  his 
statement  that,  as  we  have  said,  the  land  was  half  a  desert 
during  the  first  quarter  at  least  of  the  eighteenth  century. 
Very  few  country  houses  or  demesnes  were  seen;  for 
absenteeism,  we  have  remarked,  had  produced  the  middleman, 
and  severed  the  landlord  from  the  land;  absenteeism  had 
been  greatly  augmented  by  the  exclusion  of  the  Protestant 
gentry  from  office  in  the  state ;  and,  in  consequence,  numbers 
of  the  Irish  landlords  lived  abroad  or  in  England,  and  spent 
little  on  their  estates.  The  commercial  restrictions  had  the 
same  effects ;  the  habitations  even  of  the  largest  occupiers  of 
the  soil  were  squalid  and  mean  amidst  the  prevailing  poverty ; 
and  the  traveller  roamed  through  great  wastes  of  pasturage 
where  agriculture  scarcely  existed,  unfenced  and  half-grazed  by 
scanty  flocks  and  herds.  As  for  the  mass  of  the  population, 
the  broken  remains  of  the  tribes,  clans,  and  septs  of  another 
age,  it  was  huddled  into  miserable  Celtic  hamlets,  or  scattered 
in  hovels  in  the  rural  districts,  especially  where  it  had  been 
driven  to  the  hills ;  its  wretched  appearance,  its  rags,  its  dirt,  its 
sloth,  its  beggary,  expressed  a  condition  which  Swift  compared  to 
that  of  the  swine  of  the  field,  and  from  which  even  Berkeley 
turned  away  with  disgust.  The  country  too  was  hardly  opened 
by  roads ;  the  forests  and  woods  which  had  covered  the  land 


2 1 8  Ireland.  [Chap. 

had,  to  a  considerable  extent,  disappeared ;  but  the  means  of 
communication  were  few  and  bad,  and  the  tract  west  of  the 
Shannon,  part  of  the  old  Celtic  land,  was  in  a  state  of 
barbarism,  probably  worse  than  that  which  ever  existed  under 
its  native  rulers.  DubHn,  the  seat  of  the  Government,  had 
continued  to  increase ;  and  Cork,  Belfast,  and  some  of  the 
seaport  towns,  presented  a  comparatively  prosperous  aspect. 
But  the  great  majority  of  the  inland  towns  remained  petty 
and  even  decaying  villages,  without  commerce,  and  showing 
scarcely  a  sign  of  progress.  Ireland,  in  a  word,  was  as  a  whole 
in  a  pitiable  state ;  one  special  feature  of  the  social  structure  was 
significant  and  deserves  close  attention.  Her  history,  we  have 
pointed  out,  had  in  the  medieval  age  made  the  developement 
of  a  middle  class  impossible ;  the  events  of  the  sixteenth  and 
seventeenth  centuries  had  inevitably  produced  the  same  result. 
Ireland  at  this  period  had  scarcely  a  middle  class  at  all ;  and 
this  at  the  time  when  the  great  middle  class  of  England  was 
covering  the  seas  with  its  merchant  fleets,  was  beginning  its 
reign  of  manufacturing  greatness,  and  was  rapidly  advancing 
to  power  in  the  state. 

The  degradation  of  Ireland  in  all  its  classes  naturally 
engendered  feelings  of  arrogance  and  contempt  on  the  part  of 
its  alien  English  masters.  They  looked  down  on  the  Catholic 
Irish  as  a  people  of  serfs,  and  on  the  Protestant  colony  as  a 
subject  settlement,  to  be  dealt  with  at  the  pleasure  of  the 
mother  country.  The  Irish  Catholics  did  not  utter  a  murmur ; 
but  the  Protestants  resented  the  selfish  policy  which  sacrificed 
them  to  narrow  English  interests  and  the  domineering  temper 
and  self  sufficient  attitude  of  the  officials  from  England  en- 
throned at  the  Castle.  The  first  notable  symptom  of  this 
angry  discontent  appeared  in  a  book  called  the  Case  of  Ireland^ 
written  by  William  Molyneux,  a  friend  of  Locke,  a  member  for 
the  University  of  Dublin  in  the  Irish  Parliament,  and  a  very 
able  and  fearless  man ;  he  was  indignant  at  the  annihilation  of 


VII.]      The  Period  of  the  Penal  Lazvs  in  Ireland,      219 

Irish  commerce,  especially  of  the  rising  woollen  manufacture ; 
he  wrote  to  prove  that  the  English  Parliament  had  no  right  to 
bind  Ireland  by  Acts  passed  at  Westminster;  and  he  main- 
tained a  position  which  had  been  a  subject  of  angry  contro- 
versy for  more  than  a  hundred  years  with  real  learning  and 
much  force  of  argument.  The  English  House  of  Commons 
which,  we  have  seen,  had  asserted  the  right  on  many  occasions, 
ordered  the  work  to  be  burned  by  the  common  hangman ;  but, 
as  Grattan  said,  it  was  more  easily  burned  than  answered ;  and 
the  conclusions  of  the  author,  which  probably  had  a  prei)onder- 
ance  of  legal  authority  on  his  side,  were  triumphantly  vindicated 
in  another  age. 

During  the  period  however  we  are  now  reviewing,  the 
great  champion  of  the  Protestant  Irish  was  Swift,  certainly,  in 
his  peculiar  style,  the  foremost  political  writer  in  the  English 
tongue.  Swift  despised  and  hated  Catholic  Ireland ;  he  was 
an  enemy  of  the  Presbyterian  Irish ;  he  is  not  to  be  relied  on 
in  his  savage  diatribes  on  the  Irish  Parliament  and  the  Irish 
landlords,  who,  we  have  said,  had  injured  the  Established 
Church.  But  he  threw  a  flood  of  light  on  the  state  of 
Ireland  in  the  first  thirty  years  of  the  eighteenth  century ;  and 
he  set  forth  admirably  and  with  inimitable  skill  the  grievances 
and  the  wrongs  of  the  Protestant  settlers.  The  best  known 
exhibition  of  his  powers  was  seen  in  the  affair  of  Wood's 
patent,  a  job  arranged  by  the  English  Government  for  the 
benefit  of  the  Duchess  of  Kendal,  one  of  the  most  greedy  of 
royal  favourites,  which  would  have  imposed  on  Ireland  a  base 
copper  coinage,  and  probably  would  have  disturbed  her 
currency.  In  a  series  of  letters  written  in  homely  language, 
but  rich  in  sarcasm  and  in  telling  invective,  Swift,  in  the  part 
he  assumed  of  a  Dublin  "  Drapier,"  denounced  the  patent  as  a 
destructive  fraud,  and  Wood  as  a  wicked  and  rapacious 
trickster;  and  though  his  statements  were  overcharged  and 
unscrupulous,    he    successfully   exposed   a   scandalous   abuse. 


220  Ireland.  [Chap. 

The  fourth  letter  rose  to  the  height  of  an  argument  for  the 
liberty  of  the  Irish  legislature,  and  for  the  right  of  Irishmen  to 
govern  themselves ;  the  effect  it  produced  was  widespread  and 
magical.  Protestant  Ireland  raUied  around  the  exponent  of 
the  injuries  done  to  its  constitutional  rights ;  every  attempt  to 
put  Swift  down  ignominiously  failed ;  the  patent  was  cancelled  - 
and  Wood  disowned ;  and  Pope  recorded  the  triumph  in  the 
well-known  line,  "The  rights  a  Court  attacked,  a  Poet  saved." 
Yet  other  political  writings  of  Swift  on  Ireland  are  perhaps  not 
of  inferior  value.  His  ghastly  cannibal  scheme  to  lessen  Irish 
poverty  is  a  piece  of  hideous  and  revolting  irony ;  but  it  bears 
the  stamp  of  the  genius  of  Gulliver.  His  Short  View  of  Ireland 
sums  up  in  a  few  pregnant  sentences  the  innumerable  ills  from 
which  the  colony  suffered ;  it  is  a  mine  of  information  in  a 
short  compass.  His  History  of  an  Injured  Lady  admirably 
shows  up  the  Pharisaical  cant  in  which  English  opinion 
indulged  with  reference  to  Irish  affairs  at  the  time ;  the  lesson 
is  even  now  appropriate  ;  and  the  keen  remark  "  we  are  in  the 
condition  of  patients  who  have  physic  sent  to  them  by  doctors 
at  a  distance,  strangers  to  their  constitution  and  the  nature  of 
the  disease,"  deserves  the  attention  of  English  politicians  at 
this  hour.  In  all  these  compositions  the  ''saeva  indignatio" 
appears;  but  they  overflow  also  with  the  many  gifts  which 
characterised  the  author's  extraordinary  mind. 

Swift  stirred  Protestant  Ireland  to  its  depths,  and  aroused 
feelings  which,  having  slept  for  a  time,  acquired  ultimately 
formidable  strength.  Berkeley  also  wrote  much  on  the  state 
of  Ireland ;  he  was  a  notable  contrast  in  this  respect  to  Swift. 
We  must  pass  over  the  speculations  of  this  profound  thinker 
on  the  nature  of  things  and  the  understanding  of  man,  and  the 
admirable  pages  in  which  he  unfolds,  in  more  perspicuous  and 
succinct  language,  the  principal  doctrines  of  the  Wealth  of 
Nations.  If  bitterness  and  anger  are  the  essential  features  of 
Swift's  writings  on  Irish  affairs,  wisdom   and  charity  are  the 


VII.]      The  Period  of  the  Penal  Laws  in  Ireland.      221 

characteristics  of  those  of  Berkeley.  He  is  not  blind  to  the 
wrongs  done  to  the  Protestant  colony  by  English  selfishness ; 
but  he  tries  to  reconcile  the  English  in  England  and  the 
English  in  Ireland  by  appeals  to  their  common  origin  and 
common  interests;  and  he  labours  earnestly  to  allay  the 
feelings  of  discontent  entertained  by  the  settlers  towards  the 
mother  country.  The  best  of  the  Irish  essays  of  Berkeley  is 
no  doubt  the  Querist,  a  masterly  review  of  the  ills  of  Ireland 
and  of  the  remedies  proposed  by  the  philosophic  author. 
It  sets  forth  clearly  the  mischievous  effects  of  the  extravagance 
and  the  recklessness  of  the  upper  classes,  of  absenteeism  in 
landed  relations,  of  the  idleness  which  was  the  besetting  sin  of 
the  peasantry;  it  dwells  on  the  folly  of  neglecting  the  domestic 
trade  of  Ireland  because  the  foreign  trade  was  checked  and 
kept  down ;  and  it  shows  how  unwise  it  is  to  complain  of  a 
Government,  whatever  may  be  the  faults  of  its  pohcy,  while  the 
community  does  not  turn  its  industry  to  account.  Berkeley's 
Platonism  does  not  shrink  from  sumptuary  laws;  like  a 
faithful  disciple  of  the  great  master,  he  would  have  imposed  on 
the  state  the  task  of  moulding  the  social  life  of  Ireland  by  law  ; 
the  remarks  he  makes  on  the  necessity  of  directing  fashion,  of 
organising  labour,  of  discouraging  waste,  and  on  the  accumula- 
tion of  excessive  wealth  are  not  in  accord  with  modern  thought. 
But  his  observations  on  education  in  its  various  branches, 
especially  on  that  of  the  landed  gentry,  on  the  developement  of 
agriculture,  planting  and  building,  on  the  value  of  technical 
modes  of  instruction,  and  on  the  amelioration  of  the  lot  of  the 
peasantry  are  enlightened  in  the  highest  degree ;  and  he  is 
never  better  than  when  he  adjures  Irishmen  to  be  self-reHant, 
and  to  make  the  most  of  the  order  of  things  they  find  around 
them.  Berkeley  was  admirable  and  far  beyond  his  age  in  all 
that  related  to  the  Irish  politics  of  the  day.  He  distinctly 
perceived  the  evils  that  flowed  from  the  separation  of  the 
Catholics    from   the  land,  in  the  interest   of  Protestant   as- 


1 


222  Ireland.  [Chap. 

cendency  itself.  He  saw  how  the  Established  Church  was 
doomed  to  sterility,  if  it  stood  haughtily  aloof  from  Catholic 
Ireland ;  he  urged  that  its  services  should  be  performed  in  the 
Irish  tongue  in  the  remote  and  Celtic  parts  of  the  country. 
With  admirable  liberality  too  he  advised  that  the  University 
should  be  opened  to  the  Irish  CathoUcs,  an  idea  probably 
odious  to  most  of  his  brethren  on  the  Bench  ;  and  he  antici- 
pated the  policy  of  a  better  age,  when  he  asked,  in  the  very 
spirit  of  Grattan,  "whether  a  scheme  for  the  welfare  of  this 
nation  should  not  take  in  the  whole  inhabitants,  and  whether 
it  be  not  a  vain  attempt  to  project  the  flourishing  of  our 
Protestant  gentry,  exclusive  of  the  bulk  of  the  natives  ?  " 

A  change,  gradual  but  making  steady  progress,  began  to 
pass  over  the  state  of  Ireland  after  the  first  thirty  years  of  the 
eighteenth  century.  The  generation  that  had  witnessed  the 
Boyne  and  Aghrim  was  gone ;  the  worst  animosities  of  civil 
war  had  died  out ;  Time  was  slowly  throwing  its  kindly 
growths  over  a  settlement  of  confiscation  and  conquest.  The 
human  conscience  revolted  against  the  barbarous  laws  which 
had  been  passed  to  degrade  the  Irish  Catholics,  and  to  humiliate 
them  in  the  relations  of  Hfe;  the  Penal  Code,  in  these  respects, 
was  largely  evaded.  The  Courts  of  Justice,  too,  felt  the  effects 
of  this  sentiment;  the  vile  trade  of  the  informer  was  not  en- 
couraged ;  by  the  ingenuity  of  legal  fictions,  the  provisions  of 
the  Code  were  made  means  to  keep  Catholic  estates  in  the 
hands  of  their  owners.  At  the  same  time  not  a  i^^N  of  the 
Protestant  gentry — Anthony  Malone  was  a  notable  instance — 
held  the  lands  of  Catholics  on  secret  trusts,  for  the  benefit  of 
the  true  possessors ;  and  these  trusts,  though  contrary  to  law, 
were  hardly  ever  broken.  The  class  of  Catholic  landlords  was 
thus  left  to  hve  in  peace;  and  something  like  friendly  inter- 
course, on  equal  terms,  grew  up  between  them  and  their  Pro- 
testant fellows.  No  change,  however,  was  made  in  the  laws 
which  forbade  the   CathoHc  from  acquiring  land,  or  even  a 


VII.]      TJie  Period  of  the  Penal  Lazvs  in  Ireland.      223 

partial  interest  in  it;  and  he  remained  wholly  excluded  from 
office  in  the  state,  and  completely  deprived  of  political  power. 
A  Catholic  class  of  traders  was  springing  up,  some  rising  in  the 
social  scale ;  but  it  was  still  kept  in  an  inferior  position ;  and 
as  to  the  great  body  of  the  Catholic  peasantry,  they  continued 
in  a  state  of  want  and  serfdom.  An  evil  attempt,  indeed,  had 
been  made,  and  was  still  being  tried,  to  outrage  their  faith 
by  a  shameful  expedient.  The/  were  forbidden  by  the  law 
to  educate  their  children;  and  Charter  Schools,  as  they  were 
called,  were  set  up,  in  which  "  the  young  of  the  Papists,"  as 
they  were  contemptuously  called,  were  given  instruction  and 
were  fitted  out  in  life,  if  they  would  abandon  their  parents  and 
become  Protestants.  *  The  Charter  Schools  were  largely  en- 
dowed and  established  in  many  parts  of  the  country;  but  a 
system  of  making  proselytes  by  unnatural  means,  proved,  as 
might  have  been  expected,  a  most  sorry  failure. 

Meanwhile  the  material  condition  of  Ireland  was  making  a 
slow  but  steady  advance.  Despite  of  misgovernment  of  many  • 
kinds,  the  country  was  in  profound  peace ;  social  order  was  for 
the  most  part  upheld.  The  natural  results  became  apparent ; 
the  wealth  of  Ireland  increased  by  degrees ;  the  restraints  on  her 
trade  were,  in  different  ways,  lessened.  Ireland  was  occasionally 
allowed  to  export  live  and  dead  stock  to  England ;  she  main- 
tained a  great  traffic  of  this  kind  with  the  Continent ;  she  sent 
wool  to  France  by  smuggling  in  immense  quantities.  Her 
resources  were  thus  more  and  more  developed ;  while,  at  the 
same  time,  roads  and  even  canals  opened  the  rural  districts 
and  caused  numerous  markets  to  grow  up  under  a  system  of 
local  and  municipal  government,  which,  though  confined  to 
the  Protestant  caste,  was  not  without  real  merits  of  its  own.  All 
this  reacted  with  happy  effects  on  the  land;  the  country  gentry 
became  much  more  rich;  they  gradually  ceased  to  be  mere 
alien  colonists,  acquired  local  and  even  Irish  sympathies, 
were  "  more  racy  of  the  soil,"  as  it  was  said,  than  their  fathers. 


224  Ireland.  [Chap. 

Absenteeism  diminished  in  a  perceptible  way ;  more  of  the 
Protestant  landlords  became  resident ;  the  good  consequences 
were  in  time  manifest.  The  middleman  tenures,  indeed,  re- 
mained common,  with  their  evil  effects  on  landed  relations ; 
the  habits  of  the  gentry  hardly  improved ;  the  humbler  tillers 
of  the  soil  were  still  steeped  in  poverty.  But  kindlier  feelings 
certainly  grew  up  between  the  owners  of  land  of  the  higher 
orders  and  the  Catholic  tenants  in  occupation  of  the  soil;  these 
turned  towards  their  masters  with  something  like  the  old  senti- 
ment of  the  clansmen  to  their  chiefs,  a  sentiment  deeply  rooted 
in  the  nature  of  the  Celt ;  and  this  feeling  grew  stronger  in  the 
course  of  time.  It  was  at  this  period,  and  during  the  next  half 
century,  that  most  of  the  great  country  seats  and  demesnes 
that  exist  in  Ireland  were  laid  out  and  formed ;  and  Arthur 
Young,  who  wrote  in  1776-8,  gives  on  the  whole  rather  a 
pleasing  account  of  the  relations  between  the  chief  resident 
gentry  and  their  dependents,  if  farmers  of  the  better 
class.  A  marked  improvement  also  took  place  in  the  towns 
within  the  reach  of  commerce  and  its  benign  influence.  Dublin 
grew  into  a  really  fine  capital,  adorned  with  many  noble  public 
buildings  and  with  institutions  that  told  of  progress.  Cork  too 
and  Belfast  became  seats  of  trade ;  even  some  of  the  inland 
towns  showed  signs  of  active  life.  And  with  this  material, 
there  was  social  and  moral  progress ;  the  influences  of  the 
eighteenth  century  effected  something,  if  not  much,  in  miti- 
gating Protestant  ascendency  in  its  worst  aspects  and  in 
making  Catholic  subjection  less  grievous;  and  there  was  a 
development  of  letters,  of  art  and  of  science,  on  which  we  shall 
say  a  few  words  afterwards. 

This  change,  as  had  been  the  case  before,  affected  the 
institutions  and  the  social  life  of  Ireland.  The  government 
of  the  country  remained  much  as  it  had  been ;  it  abounded  in 
many,  perhaps  increasing  abuses;  it  was  still  for  the  most  part 
carried  on  by  Englishmen.     But  the  Irish  Parliament  grew  in 


VII.]      TJie  Period  of  the  Penal  Lazus  in  Ireland.      225 

authority  by  degrees,  for  the  hereditary  revenue  of  the  Crown 
had  become  insufficient  to  supply  the  demands  of  the  State  and 
the  public  service ;  a  National  Debt  was  being  formed,  and  it 
was  now  necessary  to  convene  the  Irish  Houses,  every  second 
year  at  least,  in  a  regular  manner.  A  party  in  it,  slowly  acquiring 
influence,  denounced  the  Pension  List  and  other  acts  of  the 
Castle;  as  early  as  1731  it  began  to  claim  a  right  to  deal  with 
the  national  funds,  and  the  patriotism  of  "Tottenham  in  his 
boots,"  whose  vote  proved  decisive,  was  long  remembered  as  that 
of  a  champion  of  freedom.  The  power,  however,  of  the  Irish 
Parliament  was  much  more  augmented  by  the  increase  of  the 
wealth  and  the  development  of  a  new  spirit  in  the  landed 
gentry.  As  the  Protestant  aristocracy  grew  richer  and  thus 
gained  more  influence  in  the  state,  as  it  formed  more  and  more 
a  resident  class,  as  its  sentiments  gradually  became  more  Irish, 
it  began  to  dislike  the  rule  of  the  men  at  the  Castle  and  to 
seek  to  assert  an  authority  of  its  own ;  it  employed  its  crowd 
of  nominees  in  the  Irish  House  of  Commons  to  resist  a  govern- 
ment to  which  it  had  been  long  subservient ;  and  thus  an 
opposition  to  the  Crown  and  its  measures,  slowly  gathering  in 
strength,  was  created  by  degrees.  The  "English  interest"  in  a 
word,  as"  in  bygone  times,  was  confronted  by  a  new  "Irish 
interest."  This  body  of  men  which  was  a  mere  oligarchy,  took 
no  thought  of  the  mass  of  the  people,  especially  of  the  down- 
trodden Catholics ;  it  was  often  grasping,  corrupt,  selfish,  more 
than  once,  borrowing  an  ominous  name,  it  became  an  "'  under- 
taker "  to  do  the  work  of  the  Castle,  in  return  for  a  lavish  bribe 
of  patronage  and  place.  Nevertheless  the  appearance  of  this 
Junta  was  a  change  for  the  better  in  the  affairs  of  Ireland,  even, 
in  a  certain  sense,  marked  a  turn  in  her  history.  The  men  of 
the  "  Irish  interest "  understood  Ireland  in  a  way  beyond  the 
reach  of  officials  from  England;  they  were  experienced  in  local 
Irish  business;  many  as  were  their  faults  they  loved  their 
country,  after  their  own  fashion;  and,  from  the  nature  of  the 

M.  1.  15 


226  Ireland.  [Chap. 

case,  they  were  compelled  to  advocate  liberal  measures  and  to 
denounce  abuses.  A  quarrel  between  Archbishop  Stone,  still 
the  real  head  of  the  Irish  Government,  and  several  chiefs  of 
leading  Irish  families  ultimately  led  in  1753  to  an  angry 
rupture;  the  "Irish  interest"  insisted  that  it  had  a  right  to 
appropriate  a  surplus  of  national  money,  and  came  into  conflict 
with  the  men  in  power.  The  Government  triumphed,  but  with 
much  difficulty;  from  this  time  forward  the  Opposition  became 
a  real  force  in  the  Irish  Parliament.  In  this  struggle  it  had  the 
support  of  the  head  of  the  great  House  of  Fitzgerald  and  of 
many  of  the  principal  Irish  nobles;  but  its  real  leader  was 
Anthony  Malone,  who,  according  to  Grattan,  gave  proof  of 
most  remarkable  powers  as  a  statesman  and  orator. 

The  Established  Church  was  but  little  affected  by  the 
influences  of  the  new  era.  Its  highest  places,  however,  were  by 
degrees  less  filled  by  Englishmen  than  they  had  been;  some 
of  its  Prelates  even  took  up  the  ideas  of  Berkeley  as  to  the 
Irish  Catholics.  The  position  of  the  Irish  CathoUc  Church 
was  greatly  improved ;  its  worship,  indeed,  was  still  celebrated 
in  miserable  "chapels,"  as  they  were  called;  its  stately  ritual 
was  still  proscribed;  as  of  old,  it  was  barely  tolerated  by  the 
law.  But  many  of  the  restraints  on  it  had  become  obsolete ; 
its  priesthood  were  not  hunted  down  and  banned ;  its  organ- 
isation was  rooted  in  the  land ;  the  Government  had  even 
entered  into  relations  with  it.  Its  hold  on  its  flocks  had  only 
strengthened,  as  it  had  w^on  its  way  through  a  sea  of  troubles; 
it  embodied  even  more  fully  than  half  a  century  before,  the 
feehngs  and  the  hopes  of  Catholic  Ireland.  Meanwhile  it  had 
wrought  a  marked  change  in  the  moral  condition  of  the  Irish 
peasantry.  Its  clergy  had  all  but  eradicated  the  sexual  licence, 
which,  we  have  seen,  had  been  the  reproach  of  the  Ireland  of 
the  Celtic  tribes ;  and  though  the  degradation  of  the  humblest 
classes  was  such,  that  a  rude  harem  was  not  seldom  an  append- 
age to  a  great  country  mansion,  this  was  looked  upon  as  an 


VII.]      The  Period  of  the  Penal  Laws  in  Ireland.      227 

accursed  spot.  The  people  brought  up  under  this  guidance, 
were  servile,  priest-ridden,  and  superstitious ;  but  they  were  re- 
markable for  their  domestic  virtues,  and  this  remains  to  this  day 
their  character.  As  for  the  Irish  Bench  and  Bar,  a  very  potent 
influence  in  a  country  governed  as  Ireland  was,  it  had  under- 
gone a  change  in  all  respects  for  the  better.  The  rising  gene- 
ration of  the  Irish  Judges  disliked  and  discountenanced  the 
Penal  Code ;  the  highest  posts  in  the  Law  were  sometimes 
held  by  Irishmen ;  the  whole  profession  became  more  Irish, 
less  subservient,  more  attached  to  their  country.  This  change 
had  been  partly  due  to  the  fact,  that  though  Catholics  remained 
excluded  from  the  Bar,  many  had  nominally  conformed  to 
satisfy  the  law,  like  the  "  nouveaux  convertis  "  of  the  French 
Huguenots,  and  some  of  these  were  distinguished  men. 

Ireland,  after  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century,  thus 
became  different,  in  many  respecis,  from  what  it  had  been  from 
the  reign  of  William  III  to  that  of  George  III.  This  progress, 
however,  was  only  partial  and  superficial  to  a  considerable 
extent ;  it  was  probably  exaggerated  by  observers  of  the  day. 
The  profound  divisions  of  race  and  faith,  which  kept  society 
asunder,  continued  to  exist ;  this  ulcer  had  been  only  filmed 
and  skinned  over;  Catholics  and  Protestants  were  separated  by 
the  widest  barriers  through  life.  The  few  Catholic  gentry  who 
remained  were  still  a  feeble  and  timid  order  of  men ;  they 
were  still  all  but  outside  the  pale  of  the  law ;  they  could  not 
lift  Catholic  Ireland  out  of  subjection.  The  Protestants  were 
as  yet  a  dominant  caste  that  held  a  Catholic  people  down  ;  if  in 
the  most  important  of  social  relations,  that  between  the 
owners  and  occupiers  of  the  soil,  a  distinct  improvement  was 
manifest,  the  evils  of  the  past  were  still  but  too  prevalent. 
Enormous  tracts  of  land  were  still  held  by  absentees,  and 
mismanaged  in  many  instances  \  middleman  tenures,  if 
diminishing,  were  very  common,  preventing  improvement  and 
causing  much  mischief;    numbers   of  the  lesser  gentry  were 

15—2 


228  Ireland.  [Chap. 

oppressive    landlords.       Complaints    of    harsh    extortion   and 
wrong  are  to  be  found  in  several  publications  of  the  day,  and 
even   in   speeches  in   the  Irish   Parliament ;   and   though   the 
great  resident  landlords  did  much  good,  as  a  class  they  were 
comparatively  few.     The   condition  of  the  great  mass  of  the 
peasantry  remained  that  of  serfs ;    their  submissiveness,  even 
the  affection  they  showed  to  superiors  who   happened  to  be 
kindly  masters,  were   closely  alHed  to  the  feelings  of  slaves. 
We  do  not  hear  of  appalling  famines  again  ;  and  Arthur  Young 
said   that  in   the  better  parts  of  Ulster  and   in  most  of  the 
Counties  of  Leinster,  the  humbler  tillers  of  the  soil  fared  as 
well   as  their  fellows  in   England.     But  it   was    otherwise    in 
whole  tracts  of  Munster  and  in  three-fourths  of  Connaught ; 
the  population  in  these  was  still  in  a  state  of  wretchedness. 
As  always  happens  in  a  distempered  society,  a  general  spirit 
of  lawlessness  was  still  common ;   the  upper  classes,  not  re- 
strained by  opinion,  had  still,  in  a  very  great  degree,  the  habits 
of  extravagance  and  licentiousness  seen  in  their  fathers;  they 
were  given  to  excesses  of  all  kinds  and  were  most  reckless 
duellists.    As  for  the  classes  beneath  them,  these  expressed  the 
sense  of  suffering  and  wrong  seething  beneath  the  surface,  in 
the  agrarian  risings,  which,  we  have  said,  may  be  traced  back 
to  the  immense  confiscations  of  the  past.     In  the  first  part  of 
the  century  Connaught  was  disturbed  by  armed  bands  known 
by  the  name  of  "  Houghers  "  ;  these  destroyed  the  flocks  and 
herds  of  men  of  substance  in  whole  counties.     Many  years 
afterwards  the  "Oakboys"  and  "Steelboys"  arose  in  parts  of 
Ulster  and   caused  grave    troubles;    unjust   taxes,   tithes  and 
harsh  acts  of  landlords  seem  to  have  been  the  provocation  of 
these  movements ;  and  they  were  remarkable  as  leading  to  a 
great  increase  of  the  emigration  of  Presbyterian  families  from 
Ireland.     The  most  formidable,  however,  of  these  risings — one 
that  nearly  makes  a  period  in  Irish  history — was  that  of  the 
"Whiteboys,"    as    they    were    called;    this    convulsed    large 


VII.]      TJie  Period  of  tJie  Penal  Laws  in  Ireland.       229 

districts  of  Munster  and  even  of  Leinster;  it  created  for  a 
time  almost  a  Reign  of  Terror ;  and  it  formed  the  peculiar  type 
of  agrarian  disorder,  which  has  agitated  Ireland  ever  since,  at 
different  intervals  of  time.  The  "  Whiteboys,"  like  the  "  Ca- 
misards"  of  the  Cevennes,  appeared  at  night,  in  white  shirts,  in 
multitudes  ;  the  grievances  they  denounced  were  the  enclosure 
of  common  lands,  extravagant  rents,  and  the  impost  of  tithe ; 
and  they  combined  into  an  organisation  of  such  strength  that, 
to  a  great  extent,  they  effected  their  objects.  The  law  and  the 
power  of  the  state  were  confronted  by  the  law  and  the  power 
of  secret  societies,  drawing  the  peasantry  together  into  a  huge 
League ;  and  the  mandates  of  this  were  steadily  carried  out 
by  outrages  of  all  kinds,  and  by  deeds  of  blood  and  violence. 
The  "Whiteboys"  were  only  slowly  put  down;  a  Draconic 
Code,  still  in  force,  was  required  to  crush  them ;  and,  as  we 
have  said,  combinations  of  this  sort,  connected  with  and 
springing  from  the  land,  have  never  since  ceased  to  exist 
in  Ireland.  The  "  Whiteboy "  movement  does  not  appear  to 
have  been  in  a  true  sense  rebellious,  or  to  have  had  a 
political  object;  but  this,  we  have  remarked,  has  sometimes 
been  an  end  of  Irish  agrarian  outbreaks ;  it  is  enough  to  refer 
to  the  history  of  Ireland  within  the  last  few  years. 

We  may  follow  the  course  of  Irish  History,  after  the 
accession  of  George  III  to  the  throne,  more  closely  than  we 
have  followed  it  of  late.  An  incident  had  just  occurred  before, 
which  proved  the  change  that  Protestant  Ireland  was  going 
through,  since  the  colonial  caste  had  become  Irishmen.  The 
commercial  restrictions  imposed  on  Ireland  had  caused  a 
movement  to  arise  in  the  reign  of  Anne,  in  favour  of  a  Union 
with  England,  which,  like  the  Scottish  Union,  might  secure  a 
free  trade;  but  this  failed  owing  to  English  commercial 
jealousy.  The  project  was  revived  in  1759,  perhaps  with  the 
approbation  of  the  first  Pitt ;  but  it  provoked  such  indignation 
that  it  was  quickly  dropped.    Another  incident  in  the  following 


230  Ireland.  [Chap. 

year,  showed  how  the  "  Irish  interest "  strong  at  this  time  at 
the    Castle,    could  venture    to    cross    the    men   in    power   at 
Westminster.     The  death   of   George   II  had  brought  to  an 
end   the    Parliament   which   had    sat    in    Dublin,    without   a 
fresh  election,  for  thirty-three  years ;  and  it  had  become  neces- 
sary to  assemble  a  new  Parliament.    To  effect  this,  it  had  been 
long  the  practice,  under  Poynings'  Law,  which  we  must  bear  in 
mind  secured  the  initiative  in  legislation  to  the  Irish  Viceroy, 
to  send  over  two  or  three  Bills  to  England,  to  be  returned  by 
the    Privy  Council  there ;    one   of  them    was   by   recognised 
custom  a  Money  Bill.     But  the  Irish  House  of  Commons  had, 
we  have  seen,  claimed  for  a  long  time  an  exclusive  right  to 
deal  with  Money  Bills  within  its  own  sphere ;  and  the  Irish 
Privy  Council,  led  by  Anthony  Malone,  advised  the  English 
Council,  on  this  occasion,  that  a  Money  Bill  should  not  be 
transmitted  to  England,  considering  the  state  of  Irish  opinion. 
The  English  Council  insisted  on  a  settled  precedent — against, 
be  it  observed,  the  wishes  of  Pitt — and  Anthony  Malone  was 
dismissed  from  his  post  as  Chancellor  of  the  Irish  Exchequer ; 
but  the  dispute  not  only  proved  that  the  "  Irish  interest"  could 
be  independent,  and  took  the  right  course,  but  led  to  irritation 
that  soon  began  to  fester.    It  should  be  added,  as  a  further  sign 
how  Protestant  Ireland  was  becoming  awake,  that  there  had 
been    a   movement    for    some   years   to    extend   the    English 
Septennial  Act  to  Ireland,  and  to  make  the  duration  of  the 
Irish    Parliament    not    coextensive   with    the    reign    of    the 
Sovereign,  in  order  to  bring  it  more  under  electoral  control. 
This  demand  had  been  urged  by  Charles  Lucas,  an  apothecary 
of  Dublin,  who,  with  inferior  parts,  was  true  to  the  political 
creed  of  the  "  Drapier,"  especially  as  to  the  right  of  Ireland  to 
self-government;  and  Lucas  became  so  popular  that  he  was 
chosen  to  represent  the  City  in   1 760-1.     The  Irish  Protest- 
ants, in  fact,  had  for  some  time  resented  the  subjection  in 
which  they  were  held,  and  had  begun  to  agitate  for  a  change  in 


VII.]      The  Period  of  the  Penal  Lazvs  in  Irelafid.      231 

the  treatment  they  received.  Swift  and  Berkeley  had  left  no 
successors  of  equal  power ;  but  a  popular  Protestant  Press  had 
grown  up ;  and  a  series  of  writers,  some  able  men,  had  con- 
demned the  restraints  placed  on  Irish  commerce,  and  had 
dwelt  on  the  economic  ills  which  checked  Irish  progress. 

Notwithstanding,  however,  these  symptonis  of  trouble,  the 
Irish  Parhament  and  the  British  Government  continued  in 
harmony  for  some  years.  The  "  Irish  interest "  was  in  the 
ascendant  in  Dublin  :  combining  its  own  influence  and  that  of 
the  Crown,  it  was  completely  supreme  in  the  Irish  Lords  and 
Commons.  The  conduct  of  that  Parliament,  and  of  those  who 
ruled  it,  reflected  the  sentiments  of  the  aristocratic  order  which 
now  virtually  directed  Irish  affairs.  The  upper  classes  of 
Ireland,  and  indeed  most  of  the  Protestants,  did  not  forget 
what  their  descent  was,  and  how  closely  associated  they  were 
with  the  mother  country;  they  were  usually  loyal  to  the 
Crown  and  to  British  Imperial  interests,  however  they  might 
wrangle  with  English  officials  on  the  spot.  The  Irish  Parlia- 
ment, accordingly,  upheld  the  war  policy  of  Pitt— it  showed 
real  sympathy  with  the  Great  Commoner — in  the  closing  years 
of  the  Seven  Years'  War,  and  cheerfully  voted  large  supplies; 
and  a  succession  of  Lords  Lieutenant,  who  held  office  in  the 
first  years  of  the  reign  of  George  III,  reported,  in  its  favour,  in 
language  of  high  praise.  In  return  for  a  support,  by  no  means 
forced  or  feigned,  the  "  Irish  interest,"  or  the  "  Undertakers," 
as  they  were  called,  were  virtually  made  the  Governors  of  the 
country ;  its  administration,  with  the  incidental  patronage, 
passed  into  their  hands.  It  is  unquestionably  true  that,  in 
executing  this  trust,  much  jobbing  and  even  corruption  may  be 
laid  to  their  charge ;  but  this  was  inevitable  in  a  state  of  things 
in  which  a  strong  public  opinion  could  not  exist ;  whatever  may 
be  said,  their  rule  was  less  faulty,  nay  purer  than  that  of  the 
"English  interest";  and  they  set  on  foot  a  system  of  Public 
Works  in  Ireland,  which  proved  of  real  and  permanent  use. 


232  Ireland.  [Chap. 

The  "  Undertakers  "  besides,  as  we  have  said,  were  necessarily 
inchned  to  take  the  popular  side ;  they  endeavoured  to  cut 
down  the  scandalous  list  of  pensions ;  and  they  induced  the 
Parliament  to  pass  Bills  for  making  the  tenure  of  the  Irish 
judges  secure  and  for  extending  the  Habeas  Corpus  Act  to 
Ireland,  which,  however,  were  rejected  by  the  English  Council. 
In  this  liberal  policy  they  found  a  champion  in  Henry  Flood,  a 
young  man  of  remarkable  powers,  and  possessing  solid  gifts  as 
a  public  speaker,  who  was  destined  to  play  a  conspicuous,  if  a 
somewhat  questionable  part,  on  the  stage  of  Irish  History,  in 
after  years. 

In  1767,  George  Lord  Townshend,  a  brother  of  the  better 
known  Charles,  assumed  the  reins  of  power  at  the  Castle;  his 
Viceroyalty  gave  a  new  turn  to  affairs  in  Ireland.  Townshend 
was  sent  over  by  the  English  Ministry  to  carry  out,  in  Ireland, 
a  policy  dear  to  the  heart  of  the  king ;  he  was  to  break  down 
the  authority  of  the  '•  Undertakers,"  as  Bute  and  Henry  Fox 
had  tried  to  break  down  the  authority  of  the  great  Whigs  of 
England;  but  he  proved  a  vexatious  and  unsuccessful  bungler. 
After  much  opposition,  and  with  great  difficulty,  he  contrived 
to  obtain  from  the  Irish  Parliament  a  vote  for  the  "Augmen 
tation,"  as  it  was  called,  of  the  Irish  Army ;  and  he  promoted 
the  enactment  of  an  Octennial  Bill,  corresponding  to  the 
Septennial  Act  in  England,  for  limiting  the  existence  of  the 
Irish  Parliament.  This  probably  was  a  Machiavellian  policy  ; 
for  the  "  Undertakers "  and,  indeed,  the  Irish  House  of 
Commons  were,  at  heart,  strongly  opposed  to  the  measure; 
but  Townshend  turned  Protestant  Irish  opinion  against  them ; 
he  had  persuaded  himself  that  the  change  would  increase  his 
chances  of  destroying  the  "  Irish  interest,"  which  he  had  begun 
for  some  time  to  hate.  He  was  checked,  however,  in  his 
career,  by  a  sudden  quarrel  with  the  Irish  House  of  Commons 
upon  the  subject,  on  which,  eighty  years  before,  it  had  come 
into  conflict  with  Lord  Sidney,  and  with  regard  to  which  it  had 


VII.]      TJie  Period  of  the  Penal  Laws  in  Irelaiid.       233 

been  always  jealous.  It  rejected  a  Money  Bill,  transmitted 
from  England,  on  the  ground  "  that  it  did  not  take  its  rise  in 
the  House  of  Commons";  angry  debates  and  recriminations 
followed;  and  Townshend  prorogued  the  Irish  Parliament,  not 
venturing,  as  Sidney  had  done,  to  dissolve  it.  The  Lord 
Lieutenant  now  addressed  himself,  for  many  months,  to  his 
appointed  task  of  striking  down  the  obnoxious  "  Irish  in- 
terest," and  of  securing  a  majority  in  the  Commons  for  the 
Crown;  the  policy  of  Bute  and  Henry  Fox  was  copied; 
several  noble  "Undertakers"  were  dismissed  from  office,  and 
pensions  and  places  were  lavished  wholesale  to  purchase  votes 
in  the  Irish  Parliament.  English  writers,  in  this,  as  in  other 
instances,  have  denounced  Irish  politicians  for  accepting  these 
bribes ;  but  the  corruption  practised  by  Townshend  was  not 
worse  than  the  corruption  practised  by  Bute  and  Fox ;  it  was 
less  scandalous  than  that  which  "  the  Endish  interest  "  had 
made  a  method  of  government  for  many  years ;  and  English- 
men at  least  have  no  right  to  make  such  a  charge.  Townshend 
succeeded  in  packing  the  Irish  ParHament,  when  it  assembled 
again  in  1772  ;  but  he  encountered  such  an  opposition  that  he 
was  ere  long  recalled. 

The  successor  of  Townshend  was  Lord  Harcourt,  a  great 
peer  and  a  skilled  diplomatist ;  his  Chief  Secretary,  too,  was  an 
adroit  Parliamentary  hand.  The  "  Undertakers "  were  won 
over  again  ;  Flood,  now  preeminent  in  the  House  of  Commons, 
was  conciliated  by  a  high  and  lucrative  place;  the  same 
influence  gained  Hely  Hutchinson,  a  lawyer  of  considerable 
repute,  and  an  economic  writer  of  real  merit,  who  had  con- 
demned the  impediments  to  Irish  trade.  Things  went  on 
smoothly  in  Ireland  for  a  time ;  indeed  the  only  important 
domestic  measure  which  engaged  the  attention  of  the  Irish 
Parliament  was  a  proposal  to  tax  absentee  owners  of  land, 
which  ultimately  did  not  become  law,  owing  to  the  opposition 
of  Whig  English   Peers,   and   to  the  persuasive,  but  perhaps 


234  Ireland.  [Chap. 

sophistical  arguments  of  Burke,  already  a  man  of  mark  in  the 
British  ParHament.  Foreign  aftairs,  however,  began  ere  long 
to  create  a  great  stirring  of  Irish  opinion,  which  gradually 
produced  momentous  results.  The  quarrel  with  America, 
followed  by  civil  war,  had  broken  out ;  and,  for  many  reasons, 
the  American  cause  found  support  and  sympathy  in  Protestant 
Ireland.  England  had  claimed  a  right  to  legislate  for  America, 
even  to  tax  her;  the  very  same  right,  as  respects  their  own 
country,  had  been  persistently  and  ably  denied  by  a  long 
series  of  well  known  Irishmen,  and  even,  to  a  great  extent,  in 
the  Irish  Parliament.  The  Presbyterians,  too,  who  had  left 
Ireland  during  a  succession  of  years,  were  numerous  in  the 
army  of  the  revolted  colonists  ;  Presbyterian  Ulster  was,  almost 
to  a  man,  enthusiastic  for  the  success  of  Washington.  The 
Irish  Parliament,  true  to  its  instincts,  and  filled  with  nominees 
of  the  Crown  and  the  great  Nobles,  resisted  this  movement 
for  a  considerable  time  ;  it  passed  a  resolution  against  the 
American  revolt ;  it  voted  large  sums  to  maintain  the  war ;  it 
even  sent  part  of  the  Irish  army,  which,  it  had  been  arranged, 
was  to  remain  at  home,  to  serve  with  the  force  under  Howe,  in 
the  American  contest.  By  degrees,  however,  it  began  to  waver ; 
the  majority  for  the  Government  fell  off;  it  oscillated  with  the 
uncertainty  often  seen  in  it,  and  natural  to  an  ill-constituted 
assembly  of  the  kind.  Harcourt  now  followed  in  the  track  of 
Townshend,  with  a  recklessness  from  which  even  Townshend 
would  have  shrunk ;  eighteen  Peerages  were  created  in  a 
single  day ;  extravagant  patronage  was  scandalously  abused ; 
and  corruption  ran  riot  in  the  public  service. 

The  majority  of  the  Government  in  the  Irish  Houses  was 
kept  together  by  these  means ;  but  it  was  under  the  influence 
also  of  higher  motives.  The  Protestant  aristocracy,  so  power- 
ful in  it,  was  decidedly  on  the  side  of  the  Crown  and  of 
England,  up  to  the  last  moment  of  the  American  war;  the 
Irish  Parliament  continued  to  vote  supplies  for  it,  as  late  as 


VI r]      The  Period  of  the  Penal  Laivs  in  Ireland.      235 

Saratoga  and  York  Town;  it  even  passed  a  perpetual  Irish 
Mutiny  Act,  which  gave  the  Executive  absolute  control  over 
the  Irish  army.  The  course  of  events  nevertheless  compelled 
it,  at  last,  to  follow  in  the  wake  of  Protestant  Ireland,  and  to 
take  part  in  a  Revolution,  in  which,  in  its  later  stages,  it  joined 
enthusiastically.  The  condition  of  Ireland,  when  France  and 
Spain  had  declared  against  England  and  become  allies  of 
America,  was  such  as  to  cause  profound  irritation  and  alarm ; 
to  arouse  feelings  against  the  mother  country,  which  might, 
otherwise,  have  been  inactive  for  years ;  and  at  last  to  pro- 
voke a  general  demand  for  a  thorough  change  in  the  Con- 
stitution and  the  administrative  system  established,  in  their 
present  forms,  for  nearly  a  century.  Ireland  was  all  but 
bankrupt  in  1776-9;  taxation  had  reached  its  utmost  Hmits 
and  weighed  heavily  upon  the  country ;  and  the  Government 
was  forced  to  borrow  from  the  English  Treasury,  and  even 
from  a  private  Irish  bank,  to  meet  the  requirements  of 
the  public  service.  The  causes  of  this  collapse  were  but  too 
evident;  an  embargo  had  been  laid  on  exports  to  England, 
on  pretexts  that  could  not  bear  the  light;  and  the  war  with 
France  had  deprived  Ireland,  to  a  considerable  extent,  of  the 
large  trade,  in  part  lawful,  in  part  contraband,  which  she  had 
been  carrying  on  for  a  long  time  with  France  and  which,  it 
was  said,  had  made  Munster  and  Connaught  French  provinces. 
The  evils  of  the  commercial  restrictions,  which  had  kept 
Ireland  back  for  generations,  were  thus  made  more  ruinous ; 
and  at  the  same  time  the  Pension  List  had  enormously 
increased,  and  the  corruption  and  waste  of  the  Government 
were  far  worse  than  ever.  The  country,  too,  was  left  almost 
without  defence ;  a  great  part  of  the  Irish  army  was  in 
America;  an  attempt  to  form  a  militia  had  failed;  a  French 
descent  on  the  coasts  was  deemed  imminent;  and  French 
privateers  swarmed  around  the  Irish  ports,  and  preyed  on  an 
already  expiring  commerce. 


236  Ireland.  [Chap. 

The  distress  of  the  country  caused  a  widespread  demand 
for  the  removal  of  the  impediments  on  Irish  commerce,  and 
for  Free  Trade  on  a  Uberal  basis.    Opinion  had  long  been  setting 
in  this  direction  ;  the  evils  wrought  by  the  fettering  of  the  trade 
of  Ireland,  had,    we  have   said,   been  proved  by  able    Irish 
writers,    from  the  days    of  Petty    onward;    and    Hume   and, 
above   all,    Adam    Smith    had   exposed    the   fallacies    of   the 
colonial  and  the  mercantile  system,  to  which  Irish  interests  had 
long  been  sacrificed.     The   Government   of  Lord   North   was 
willing  to  make  large  concessions ;  Burke  pressed  the  claims  of 
his  countrymen,  with  admirable  skill, — his  reward  was  the  loss 
of  his  seat  for  Bristol — but  selfish  British  jealousy  once  more 
prevailed ;   a  slight  relaxation  of  the  Irish  commercial  Code, 
made  in  1778,  only  provoked  resentment.     But,  in  the  mean- 
time, a  formidable  power  had  grown  up  in  Ireland,  which  soon 
told  with  effect  on  England,  at  this  juncture  pressed  on  all  sides 
by  her   enemies.      The  forlorn   and  defenceless  state   of  the 
land  caused  Protestant  Ireland  to  spring  to  arms,  in  order  to 
protect  its  hearths  and  its  homes  ;  volunteers  suddenly  enrolled 
themselves  in  multitudes ;  and  before  many  months  had  passed, 
40,000  men    were   arrayed,    a   powerful   patriotic   force,    self- 
governed,    and    beyond    the    control    of    the    Castle.       The 
movement   was   spontaneous    and    universal ;    the    Protestant 
aristocracy  stood  at  its  head ;  the  Duke  of  Leinster,  the  chief 
of  the  Fitzgerald  name,  and  Lord  Charlemont  were  among  its 
leaders ;  and  though  it  drew  its  strength  from  the  Protestant 
caste,  CathoUc  Ireland  gradually  took  part  in  it.     There  is  no 
reason  to  doubt  that  the  first  object  of  the  Volunteers  was  the 
defence  of  Ireland  ;  but  the  development  of  their  power  and 
the  evident  fact  that  they  were  a  force  practically  irresistible 
at  the  time,  soon  caused  them  to  urge  the  demand  for  Free 
Trade,  with  an  efiicacy  and  a  significance  that  the  Government 
was  compelled  to  recognise.     The  cannon  of  the  volunteers  of 
the  Capital  bore  the  ominous  device — "  Free  trade  or  this";  and 


VII.]      The  Period  of  the  Penal  Laivs  in  Ireland.      237 

Hussey  Burgh,  a  brilliant  speaker  in  the  Irish  House  of 
Commons  exclaimed, — "  Talk  not  to  me  of  peace ;  it  is  not 
peace,  but  smothered  war.  England  has  sown  her  laws  in 
dragon's  teeth,  and  they  have  sprung  up  in  armed  men." 

Lord  Buckinghamshire,  by  no  means  an  able  man,  had  been 
Lord  Lieutenant  for  some  time ;  he  looked  on,  with  impotent 
dismay,  at  a  movement  which  he  could  not  check  or  direct. 
The  Volunteers,  concentrating  and  giving  effect  to  the  passions 
and  the  will  of  Protestant  Ireland,  soon  made  their  power  felt 
in  the  Irish  Parliament,  which  rapidly  fell  in  with  a  popular 
rising,  in  which  the  great  nobles,  too,  had  taken  part.     Flood 
had  long  chafed  at  a  silence  imposed  on  him  ;  he  was  in  a 
short  time  afterwards  dismissed  from  office;  and  he  eagerly 
took  up  the  cause  of  Free  Trade,  which  he  advocated  with 
characteristic  skill.     He  was   supported    by  many   very  able 
men ;  especially  by  Henry  Grattan,  a  young  orator  who  had 
given  proof  of  most  remarkable  gifts,  and  was  soon  to  become 
the  foremost  of  Irish  statesmen.     The  united  influences   in 
favour  of   Free   Trade  had  ere  long  irresistible  effect ;    they 
were  powerfully  aided  by  combinations  not  to  import  or  make 
use  of  British  manufactures — an  idea  as  old  as  the  day  of 
Swift,  and  lately  adopted  by  the  American  Colonists ;  and  the 
Volunteers  terrified  the  English  ministry.     The  British  Parlia- 
ment practically  gave  up  the  contest;  in  1779  and  the  following 
year,    a   series    of  measures   was   passed,   which  brought  the 
whole  system  of  Irish  commercial  restrictions,  so  to  speak,  to 
the  ground,  and  secured  for  Ireland  a  largely  extended  trade. 
Ireland  was  no  longer  excluded  from  the  Navigation  Acts  ;  the 
traffic  with  the  colonies  was  thrown  open  to  her;  she  could,  with 
large  limitations,  export  to  England ;  above  all  she  acquired 
the   right   to  export  wool    and   woollen    manufactures   to  all 
foreign    countries,    a    prohibition    which    had    done    infinite 
mischief  being  thus  removed. 

The  surrender  of  the  British  Parliament  on  this  important 


238  Ireland.  [Chap. 

subject  led  to  further  and  larger  demands  from  Ireland. 
England  had  treated  Protestant  Ireland  as  a  subject  colony; 
she  had  asserted  and  enforced  claims  to  bind  Ireland  by  her 
laws ;  she  kept  the  Irish  Parliament  in  bondage  by  Poynings' 
Law;  she  had  deprived  the  Irish  House  of  Lords  of  its 
jurisdiction  in  appeals;  she  had  denied  to  Irishmen  valuable 
rights  she  had  secured  for  herself  in  1688.  This  whole  course 
of  policy  had  been  denounced,  from  time  to  time,  by  dis- 
tinguished Irishmen ;  it  was  now  assailed  by  a  rising  flood  tide 
of  opinion.  The  impending  triumph  of  the  American  cause 
gave  new  strength  to  a  general  impulse ;  America  had  been  a 
contemned  dependency;  her  example  was  not  to  be  lost  on 
Protestant  Ireland.  A  cry  for  legislative  independence,  and 
for  a  radical  change  in  the  system  of  English  rule  in  Ireland, 
went  forth,  and  spread  all  over  the  country;  it  found  expression 
in  the  different  Pubhc  Bodies,  from  Corporate  Towns  to  the 
County  Grand  Juries.  But,  as  may  be  supposed,  its  great 
exponent  was  the  formidable  and  invincible  Volunteer  force, 
which  had  continued  rapidly  to  grow  in  numbers,  and  had 
become  a  disciplined,  even  a  well  equipped  army,  under 
officers,  many  of  whom  had  experience  in  the  field.  The  attitude 
of  the  Volunteers  remained  unchanged ;  they  proclaimed  their 
loyalty  to  the  Crown  and  to  England,  but  insisted  that  Ireland 
should  obtain  liberty ;  their  weight  in  the  scale  of  events  was 
decisive,  for  the  Government  had  no  means  to  withstand  their 
purpose,  and  they  gathered  to  their  side  the  moral  forces,  which 
otherwise  might  have  been  arrayed  against  them,  by  remaining 
steady  supporters  of  order  and  law.  The  movement  became 
so  powerful,  that  the  Ministry  in  England  learned  with 
alarm,  that  magistrates  and  even  judges  were  not  inclined  to 
give  effect  in  Ireland  to  an  English  statute,  and  sheriffs  to 
execute  an  English  judgment.  "The  independence  of  Irish 
legislation,"  wrote  the  successor  of  Buckinghamshire,  Lord 
Carlisle,   "  has  become  the  creed  of  the  kingdom." 


VII.]      The  Period  of  the  Penal  Laivs  in  Ireland.      239 

The  Irish  Parhament  resisted  for  a  time  a  movement  which 
practically  sought  to  subvert  the  Constitution  of  the  country 
and  its  relations  with  England.  Recourse  was  once  more  had 
to  the  methods  employed  to  secure  votes  by  corrupt  agencies ; 
a  majority  was  obtained  to  uphold  the  Government;  and  it 
should  be  added  that  some  of  the  leading  Irish  nobles  feared  a 
violent  Revolution  which  they  deemed  at  hand.  But  a  strong 
opposition  maintained  the  popular  demand ;  Flood,  who  had 
long  made  the  subject  his  own,  condemned  Poynings'  Law  with 
great  force  of  reasoning ;  and  other  prominent  men  took  the 
same  side.  Grattan,  however,  was  by  far  the  foremost  champion 
of  the  claim  to  Legislative  Independence  and  Self-Govern- 
ment ;  he  had  adopted  the  views  of  Molyneux  and  Swift  from 
early  youth ;  in  April,  1780,  he  brought  the  question  forward 
in  a  speech  long  remembered  as  one  of  his  finest  efforts.  His 
address  was  premature  and  was  withdrawn ;  and  the  Irish 
Parliament  kept  up  for  some  months  an  attitude  apparently 
hostile  to  a  great  organic  reform.  Meanwhile,  however,  the 
voice  of  Protestant  Ireland  rose  higher  and  higher;  it  was  felt 
even  by  the  ministers  in  power  that  it  had  become  impossible 
to  oppose  it  with  effect.  In  the  spring  of  1782,  a  great  body 
of  Delegates  from  the  Volunteers  of  Ulster  assembled  in  the 
Church  of  Dongannon;  it  insisted,  in  language  of  stern 
earnestness,  on  the  repeal  of  the  Act  that  declared  the  English 
Parliament  entitled  to  pass  laws  that  affected  Ireland,  on  a 
thorough  modification  of  Poynings'  Law,  and  on  other  measures 
enlarging  Irish  liberty ;  the  result  was  immense  even  in  the  two 
Irish  Houses.  Ere  long  the  defeat  of  England  in  the  American 
War  caused  the  fall  of  the  Tory  Administration  of  North ;  the 
Rockingham  Government  came  into  office;  and  its  attention 
was  at  once  directed  to  Irish  affairs.  Burke  had  genuine 
sympathy  with  the  Irish  cause;  this  was  shared,  in  some 
degree,  by  Fox;  their  influence  probably  swayed  the  great 
Whig  magnates.     The  Duke  of  Portland  was  appointed  Lord 


240  Ireland.  [Chap. 

Lieutenant ;  and  a  Royal  Message  was  sent  to  the  Houses  at 
Westminster,  to  consider  how  Ireland  was  to  be  pacified. 

The  Irish  Parhament  had  shown,  by  this  time,  that  it  would 
no  longer  offer  a  vain  resistance ;  it  was  affected,  too,  by  the 
change  in  the  Councils  of  England;  it  threw  in  its  lot  with 
Protestant  Ireland.  The  movement,  carrying  everything 
before  it,  was  thus  described  by  Portland :—"  all  sorts  and 
descriptions  of  men  unanimously  and  most  audibly  call  upon 
Great  Britain  for  a  full  and  unequivocal  satisfaction  " ;  and  the 
statement  was  in  no  sense  overcharged.  At  this  crisis  the  men 
in  power  in  England  sought  to  gain  time  to  effect  a  compro- 
mise ;  they  believed  a  violent  Revolution  near ;  Fox  and  even 
Burke  had  become  alarmed.  But  Grattan  refused  to  concede 
even  a  day's  delay;  on  the  i6th  of  April,  1782,  he  moved  an 
address  in  the  House  of  Commons,  setting  forth  the  wrongs  of 
w^hich  his  countrymen  complained,  and  demanding  the  legisla- 
tive independence  of  Ireland  in  their  name.  It  was  a  stirring 
and  dramatic  historical  scene ;  troops  of  Volunteers  lined  the 
approaches  to  the  stately  building  in  which  the  Parliament  held 
its  Session  ;  the  House  of  Commons  overflowed  with  members  : 
its  galleries  were  crowded  with  all  that  was  most  conspicuous 
and  beautiful  in  the  aristocratic  life  of  Ireland.  The  orator 
entranced  the  audience  that  hung  on  his  lips;  his  speech,  if 
perhaps  not  one  of  his  very  best,  was  remarkable  alike 
for  its  brilliancy  and  its  wisdom ;  for  the  eloquence  in  which 
it  asserted  the  claims  of  Ireland;  for  the  patriotic  hope  it 
expressed  that  England  and  Ireland  would  become  fast  friends, 
indissolubly  united,  when  right  had  been  done ;  for  the  senti- 
ment apparent  in  many  passages,  that  the  Volunteers  must 
not  overawe  the  state,  that  wild  ideas  must  be  eschewed, 
that  the  Parliament  must  be  supreme  in  Ireland — marked 
principles  in  Grattan's  political  creed.  His  specific  demands 
were  that  the  Act  declaring  that  Ireland  could  be  bound  by 
English  laws  should  be  repealed ;  that  Poynings'  Law  should  be 


vii.]  The  Revolution  of  1782.  241 

so  reformed  that  the  Irish  Parliament  should  possess  freedom  ; 
that  the  appellate  jurisdiction  of  the  Irish  House  of  Lords 
should  be  restored  to  it  and  be  final ;  and  that  the  recent 
Mutiny  Act,  which  placed  the  Irish  army  under  the  permanent 
control  of  England,  should  be  completely  changed. 

Grattan's  address  was  carried  without  a  dissentient  vote, 
amidst  a  tumult  of  enthusiastic  applause.  The  Ministry  in 
England  had  but  one  course  to  take ;  they  yielded  with  good 
grace,  and  with  words  of  sympathy.  Resolutions  in  the 
English  Houses  were  ere  long  followed  by  statutes  conceding 
Grattan's  demands,  which  broke  the  shackles  which  had  held 
down  Ireland,  and  changed  her  from  a  mere  dependency  into  a 
nearly  Sovereign  state.  English  Acts  of  Parliament  thereafter 
were  not  to  affect  Ireland ;  the  Irish  House  of  Lords  regained 
its  rights  over  appeals ;  the  perpetual  Irish  Mutiny  Act  was 
limited.  As  for  Poynings'  Law,  an  Act  of  the  Irish  Parliament 
took  away  the  initiative  in  legislation  from  the  Viceroy;  and  it 
deprived  the  Irish  and  the  English  Privy  Councils  of  the  power 
of  altering,  suppressing  or  rejecting  Bills  or  their  Heads.  The 
Irish  Parliament  was  left  free  to  discuss  and  to  make  laws  in 
the  same  way  as  the  British  Parliament;  but  it  was  provided 
that  any  Bills  it  might  pass  should  be  returned  under  the  Great 
Seal  of  England ;  it  was  thus  subjected  to  a  kind  of  Ministerial 
veto,  in  addition  to  the  Constitutional  veto  of  the  Crown,  but 
virtually,  with  almost  as  little  effect.  The  security  of  the  Habeas 
Corpus  Act  had  been  obtained  for  Ireland  before  this  time; 
the  tenure  of  the  Irish  Judges  was  ere  long  placed  on  the 
same  footing  as  that  of  their  English  brethren.  The  vexatious 
tests  and  other  disabilities  which,  we  have  seen,  had  been  im- 
posed on  Presbyterian  Ireland  were  also  removed ;  for  Presby- 
terian Ireland  had  flung  itself  into  the  Volunteer  movement. 
The  evil  consequences  of  these  wrongs,  however,  survived ; 
they  are  not  wholly  things  of  the  past  at  this  day. 

The  political  crisis,  of  which  we  have  traced  the  course,  has 

M.  I.  16 


242  Ireland.  [Chap. 

been  rightly  called  the  Revolution  of  1782.  The  triumph  was 
that  of  the  Irish  Protestant  Colony ;  its  Legislative  Assembly, 
the  Irish  Parliament,  had  been  made  nearly  coordinate  with 
that  of  Great  Britain ;  Protestant  Ireland  was  all  but  an  inde- 
pendent state,  and  in  theory  was  united  to  England  only  by 
the  Hnk  of  the  Crown.  Catholic  Ireland  still  remained  a 
distinct  people,  oppressed  and  degraded  in  the  relations  of  life; 
but  she  had  in  some  measure  shared  in  the  benefits  of  increased 
liberty,  and  been  raised  out  of  bondage.  Many  causes  had 
conspired  still  further  to  soften  the  feelings  of  the  Irish  Protes- 
tant to  the  Catholic,  and  to  lead  to  a  relaxation  of  the  Penal 
Code.  The  Catholics  had  been  submissive  and  peaceful  for 
years ;  they  had  joined,  we  have  said,  in  the  Volunteer  move- 
ment ;  they  had  lately  been  permitted  to  serve  in  the  British 
army.  Rome,  too,  had  ceased  to  be  an  aggressive  Power;  the 
liberal  and  sceptical  tendencies  of  the  eighteenth  century  had 
produced  a  general  tone  of  religious  indifference  in  politics 
and  in  social  opinion.  The  interests,  too,  of  the  Protestant 
Irish  induced  them  to  modify  the  Penal  laws ;  the  prohibition 
to  sell  or  to  mortgage  their  lands  to  Catholics  was  felt  to  be  a 
grievance  as  time  rolled  on  ;  and  higher  motives  concurred  to 
make  them  willing  to  lighten  the  chains  of  Catholic  slavery. 
The  movement  in  favour  of  Protestant  rights  had  awakened 
sympathy  with  Catholic  wrongs ;  the  Volunteers  at  Dungannon 
had  emphatically  declared  they  "rejoiced"  at  the  mitigation  of 
the  Anti-Catholic  laws.  Effect  was  given  to  these  opinions  in 
the  Irish  Parliament;  a  series  of  Acts  were  passed,  from  1771 
to  1782,  which  gradually  extended  relief  to  the  Irish  Catholics. 
They  were  first  enabled  to  take  leases  of  unprofitable  waste ; 
next  to  take  leases  of  land  for  999  years ;  finally  to  purchase 
land  in  fee  simple  and  to  lend  money  on  land ;  these  con- 
cessions being  in  Protestant  interests.  They  were  also  relieved 
by  law  from  wrongs  which  custom,  however,  had  made  largely 
obsolete;  their  estates  were  not  to  ''gavel"  upon  a  descent; 


VII.]  The  Revohttion  of  1782.  243 

the  iniquities  which  encouraged  a  son  to  pkinder  his  father,  and 
brought  misery  into  CathoUc  households,  were  put  an  end  to, 
almost  without  exception ;  measures  of  degradation,  such  as 
that  which  forbade  a  Catholic  to  have  a  horse  worth  more  than 
;2^5,  were  repealed;  and  the  organisation  of  the  Catholic 
Church  received  legal  sanction.  The  Irish  Catholics,  never-  r 
theless,  were  still  excluded  from  all  share  of  political  power, 
and  were  still  wholly  without  direct  influence  in  the  state. 
Flood,  Charlemont,  and  the  immense  majority  of  even  the 
most  enlightened  men  of  Protestant  Ireland,  insisted  that  their 
disabilities  must  be  maintained ;  and  Grattan  himself,  who  had 
the  genius  to  see  that  "the  Protestant  could  not  be  free  as  long 
as  the  Catholic  was  a  slave,"  declared  that  Protestant  Ascend- 
ency must  prevail  in  Ireland. 

We  pass  from  one  of  the  few  bright  passages  of  Irish 
History  to  glance  at  the  achievements  of  Irish  intellect,  which 
we  have  left  unnoticed  for  a  considerable  time.  There  was 
little  opportunity  for  the  development  of  the  works  of  the 
mind  during  the  long  period  of  trouble  and  civil  war,  between 
the  Desmond  rising  and  the  Boyne  and  Aghrim,  when  Ireland 
it  may  be  said  was  finally  subdued.  Some  excellent  writers, 
however,  appeared,  especially  Divines  of  the  Irish  Anglican 
Church  :  Anglican  Theology  was  in  its  golden  age,  and  the 
Bench  and  Bar  of  Ireland  had  many  distinguished  ornaments. 
The  literature,  too,  of  the  native  race  was  not  without 
specimens  of  real  merit ;  the  great  work  of  the  A?inals  of  the 
Four  Masters  was  compiled,  we  have  said,  in  the  seven- 
teenth century,  and  some  Irish  Histories  showed  research  and 
learning.  That  literature,  however,  retained  the  character  to 
which  we  have  before  adverted ;  it  was  a  tale  of  Celtic  sorrow 
dwelling  on  the  past.  In  the  first  three  quarters  of  the 
eighteenth  century  Ireland  possessed  illustrious  names  in 
many  departments  of  letters.  We  have  already  alluded  to 
Swift  and  Berkeley,  the  first  incomparable  in  the  field  of  satire, 

16 — 2 


244  Ireland.  [Chap. 

the  second  great  as  a  metaphysician  and  a  deep  thinker  ;  and  to 
these  should  be  added  Edmund  Burke,  the  philosophic  states- 
man of  a  troubled  era,  and,  but  far  less  in  eminence, 
Oliver  Goldsmith,  whose  Vicar  of  Wakefield — that  charming 
picture  of  simple  life  and  manners — is  probably  of  its  kind 
unrivalled.  We  may  refer,  besides,  to  a  Hst  of  distinguished 
men :  Francis  Hutcheson,  a  very  able  writer  on  moral 
philosophy  and  the  Deism  of  the  age ;  Leland,  breathing  the 
ideas  of  the  most  enlightened  Protestants  of  1771-82,  whose 
History  of  Irela^id  is  still  of  value ;  Warner,  who  first  exploded 
the  falsehoods  of  the  alleged  massacre  of  1691 ;  and  a  number 
of  others  we  cannot  dwell  on.  The  political  and  economic 
wrongs  of  Protestant  Ireland  attracted  the  attention  of  other 
powerful  minds ;  Lord  Molesworth,  Sir  James  Caldwell,  and, 
above  all,  Hely  Hutchinson  have  left  works  on  the  subject 
of  real  merit.  Nor  are  writers  of  Catholic  Ireland  wanting, 
though  still  nearly  all  in  the  same  vein  of  thought — Curry, 
whose  Histo7'y  of  the  Civil  Wars  of  Irelaiid  should  be  studied 
by  every  candid  enquirer;  MacGeoghegan,  who  wrote  well 
on  the  same  theme ;  De  Burg,  whose  work  on  the  Irish 
Dominicans  is  a  model  of  erudition  and  research ;  Charles 
O'Conor,  a  descendant  of  the  last  of  the  Irish  Kings,  and 
the  most  learned  antiquary  of  his  time.  Ireland  had  few 
painters  and  sculptors,  but  her  actors  and  musical  artists 
were  of  peculiar  excellence.  Her  architecture  was  hardly  of 
high  quahty;  some  of  the  public  buildings  indeed  of  Dublin, 
constructed  in  this  period,  are  remarkably  fine ;  but  the  great 
country  seats  are  in  the  bad  Georgian  style,  and  contrast 
painfully  with  the  ruins  of  the  abbeys  and  castles  effaced 
in  the  barbarous  wars  of  the  sixteenth  century. 

But  if  the  intellect  of  Ireland  was  brilliant  at  this  time,  the 
standard  of  her  education  and  mental  culture  was  far  lower 
than  that  of  England  or  Scotland.  The  books  published  in 
Dublin  were  comparatively  few;  they  were  often  mere  copies 


VII.]  The  Revohitio7i  of  1782.  245 

of  English  and  Scotch  publications.  The  aristocracy  usually 
sent  their  sons  to  Eton  and  Harrow,  to  Oxford  and  Cam- 
bridge; these  were  assimilated  by  degrees  to  English  gentlemen, 
though  they  still  retained  peculiarities  of  their  own  resembling 
those,  as  we  have  said,  of  the  seigneurs  of  old  France.  The 
University  of  Dublin  educated  well  the  sons  of  the  lesser 
gentry  and  professional  men;  but  it  was  not  supported  by 
great  public  schools,  as  the  English  Universities  were  and  are, 
a  deficiency  from  which  it  still  suffers ;  and  it  was  long  known 
by  the  name  of  the  "  Silent  Sister."  Middle-class  education  was  ^' 
wretchedly  bad,  for  a  middle  class  hardly  existed,  as  we  have 
said;  and  if  the  children  of  the  Irish  Catholic  gentry,  as  the 
Penal  Code  was  relaxed  by  degrees,  were  often  trained  in  their 
first  years  in  France,  the  mass  of  the  Irish  Catholics  were  left 
in  gross  ignorance,  the  Charter  Schools,  we  have  seen,  having 
happily  failed.  Two  characteristics  of  the  Irish  literature  of 
this  part  of  the  century  deserve  attention.  The  works  written 
by  the  conquering  and  the  conquered  race  were  wholly  dis- 
similar in  thought  and  tendency ;  they  reflected  the  distinction 
in  blood  and  faith  rooted  in  the  frame  of  Irish  society;  and 
nothing  appeared  to  lessen  this  wide  division,  to  make  its 
lines,  as  it  were,  to  run  into  each  other.  Swift  and  Berkeley 
addressed  the  Protestant  caste ;  Curry  and  Charles  O'Conor 
wrote  for  the  Catholic  Irishry;  and,  though  it  has  been  in  some 
measure  softened,  this  difference  has  continued  down  to  the 
present  day.  A  great  change,  however,  passed  over  the  style 
and  language  of  Irish  authors  and  public  speakers  in  the  course 
of  the  eighteenth  century.  Swift  wrote  as  an  Englishman  in 
all  his  works ;  he  is  simplicity  itself,  without  a  trace  of  rhetoric; 
Berkeley  imitated  Plato,  but  is,  nevertheless,  English;  the  same 
may  be  said  of  all  the  best  writers  of  Ireland  until  the  reign  of 
George  III.  But  after  this  time  elements  of  the  Celtic  mind  ^ 
appear  strikingly  in  compositions  even  of  Irish  Protestants; 
they  give  life,  splendour,  and  epigram  to  Grattan's  speeches; 


246  Ireland.  [Chap. 

they  animate  the  deh'ghtful  pages  of  Goldsmith  ;  they  are  seen 
in  the  gorgeous  rhetoric,  the  exaggerated  phrases,  and  the 
vehemence  often  found  in  the  orations  of  Burke.  The  pheno- 
menon is  curious  and  not  easily  explained. 

England  must  for  the  most  part  bear  the  blame  for  the 
misgovernment  of  Ireland  during  the  long  period  of  which  we 
have  tried  to  describe  the  character.     The  Penal  Code,  indeed, 
was   enacted   by  the    Irish   Parliament ;    the    oppression    and 
exaction  seen  in  landed  relations  may  be  laid  to  the  charge  of 
the  Irish  Protestant  caste.    But  England  and  her  statesmen  had 
absolute  control  over  Irish  aftairs  throughout  this  whole  time ; 
they  looked  on  the  evil  that  was  being  done,  nay  encouraged  its 
perpetration  in  many  instances ;  English  selfishness  and  arro- 
gance are  wholly  responsible  for  the  commercial  restrictions 
imposed  on   Ireland  and  for  the    bad  rule   of  the  "  English 
interest."     Some  excuses,  however,  may  be  rightly  made  for 
the  system  of  iniquitous  law  and  tyranny  which  prevailed  in 
Ireland  before    1782.     England  was   incensed  with    Catholic 
Ireland  in  1691  ;  she  felt  her  Protestant  colony  to  be  a  burden. 
The  Irish  Penal  Code  was  almost  a  counterpart  of  measures 
taken  against  the  Huguenots  of  France ;  it  was  only  forgotten 
• — an  immense  distinction — that  the  one  affected  a  people,  the 
other  a  sect.     So  too,  the  trade  legislation  that  impoverished 
Ireland  was  that  of  the  colonial  and  the  mercantile  system ;  it 
was  merely  left  out  of  sight  that  it  injured  Ireland  infinitely 
more  than  it  could  injure  remote  colonies.     Every  reasonable 
plea  must  be  allowed  by  History ;    but  the  fact  remains  that 
I  English  rule  in  Ireland  was  nearly  as  bad  as  it  could  be  in  this 
'  period ;  and  the  lamentable  consequences  survive  to  this  day. 
It  is  true  that  Ireland  was  in  a  wretched  condition  and  had 
been  misgoverned  for  centuries  before  1691 ;  but  it  is  equally 
certain  that  all  her  ills  increased,  and  were,  so  to  speak,  made 
permanent  in  the  state  of  things  that  existed  in  the  following 
age.     The   Revolution  of   1782   was  wholly  the  work  of  the 


VII.]  The  Revolution  of  1782.  247 

Irish  Protestants ;  and  Englisli  writers  who  condemn  them  are 
mere  partisans.  Protestant  Ireland  had  suffered  from  wrongs 
done  by  England  far  more  than  America ;  Protestant  Ireland 
rightly  insisted  on  obtaining  justice.  The  attitude,  too,  of  the 
Irish  Protestants  has  not  received  the  commendation  it  deserves. 
They  remained  loyal  to  the  mother  country ;  they  fought  for 
her,  and  filled  her  armies ;  they  only  demanded  rights  long 
enjoyed  by  Englishmen.  And  it  should  be  added  that,  in 
some  degree  at  least,  the  spirit  of  liberty  which  animated 
themselves  produced  sympathy  with  down-trodden  Catholic 
Ireland. 

The  Revolution  of  1782,  we  have  seen,  made  Ireland 
almost  a  Sovereign  state,  with  a  legislature  nearly  coordinate 
with  that  of  England  ;  made  Ireland,  in  theory  at  least,  all  but 
an  independent  people.  What  probabilities  were  there  that  a 
settlement  of  this  kind  would  take  root,  flourish,  and  become 
enduring  ?  England  had  made  the  concession  in  generous 
words ;  but  every  English  statesman  of  mark  disliked  it,  and 
saw  that  it  might  be  fraught  with  evil.  The  English  and  Irish 
Parliaments,  from  the  nature  of  things,  would  differ  in  opinion, 
perhaps  come  in  conflict,  on  questions  of  the  gravest  import- 
ance ;  this  would  inevitably  strain,  nay,  might  break  up  the 
Empire.  Besides,  the  arrangement  effected  in  1782  was  against 
the  genius  and  the  tendencies  of  the  age ;  these  were  in  the 
direction  of  the  consohdation  of  states,  not  of  their  division 
into  separate  parts.  Cromwell  had  accomplished  an  Irish 
Union ;  Petty,  Montesquieu,  Adam  Smith,  and  other  distin- 
guished men  had  declared  that  a  Union  was  the  first  need  of 
Ireland.  Looking,  too,  at  Ireland  and  her  existing  condition, 
would  the  settlement  of  1782  have  happy  results  ?  Would  the 
Irish  Parliament,  confined  to  the  Protestant  caste,  and  from  its 
composition  exposed  to  corruption,  grow  into  a  patriotic  and 
pure  assembly,  govern  Ireland  for  the  general  good,  be  proof 
against  evil  influences  from  without?     Would  "the  Protestant 


248  Ireland.  [Chap.  vii. 

Settlement,"  as  Grattan  fondly  hoped,  ''  expand  into  the  Irish 
nation  "  ;  would  anything  efface  the  profound  distinctions  which 
had  kept  Ireland  a  distracted  land  for  ages,  and  make  her  a 
really  united  people,  capable  of  self-government  and  fit  for 
liberty?  Could  Parliamentary  government  really  prosper  in  a 
community  constituted  as  Ireland  was,  in  which,  it  was  said, 
"a  living  head  was  at  the  top  of  a  paralytic  body"  ;  in  which 
the  middle  class  was  still  deplorably  feeble,  in  which  the  mass  of 
the  peasantry  remained  degraded  serfs?  Might  not  occasions 
arise  in  which  the  old  feuds  and  animosities  of  the  past  would 
break  out,  and  tear  to  pieces  the  superficial  veil  thrown  over 
the  present?  History  was  before  long  to  answer  questions 
which  had  already  flitted  across  reflecting  minds. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

grattan's  parliament,    the  rebellion  of  1798. 

the  union. 

Ireland  almost  an  independent  state,  in  theory,  under  the  Constitution  of 
1782.  Influences  that  made  the  Irish  Parhament  and  Ireland,  in  a 
great  degree,  dependent.  Simple  Repeal,  and  the  Act  of  Renuncia- 
tion. The  Commercial  Propositions  of  1785.  The  Regency  Question 
in  1789.  Flood,  supported  by  the  Volunteers,  endeavours  to  reform 
the  Irish  Parliament  in  1783.  Characteristics  of  that  Assembly. 
Flood's  reform  rejected.  Material  prosperity  of  Ireland  from  1782 
to  1789.  Necessary  reforms  neglected.  Pitt.  Grattan.  Fitzgibbon. 
Influence  of  the  French  Revolution  on  Ireland.  Movement  in  Pres- 
byterian Ulster.  Theobald  Wolfe  Tone.  He  founds  the  Society  of 
the  United  Irishmen.  His  objects  and  policy.  The  Society  seeks  to 
gain  over  Catholic  Ireland.  How  it  is  affected  by  the  French  Revolu- 
tion. Agrarian  disturbance.  Extension  of  the  United  Irish  Society. 
Policy  of  Pitt.  Influence  of  Burke.  The  Catholic  Relief  Act  of  1793. 
Other  measures  of  the  year.  Lull  in  Ireland  in  1794.  The  appoint- 
ment of  Lord  Fitzwilliam  as  Viceroy.  His  recall.  The  results.  Lord 
Camden  made  Viceroy.  Policy  of  Protestant  Ascendency  restored. 
Fitzgibbon  made  Earl  of  Clare.  Extension  of  the  United  Irish  move- 
ment. It  becomes  rebellious.  It  makes  its  way  into  Catholic  Ireland. 
The  Orange  Society  and  its  adherents.  The  Defenders.  Orange 
outrages  throw  many  Irish  Catholics  into  the  arms  of  the  United 
Irishmen.  The  French  descent  on  Bantry  in  1796.  Apparent  quies- 
cence of  Catholic  Ireland.  State  of  Ulster  and  of  Ireland  in  1797. 
Rebellion  gathering.  Armed  levies  in  Ulster  and  insurrection  planned 
in  Dublin.     The  Government  compelled  to  strike.     Want  of  a  regular 


250  Ireland.  [Chap. 

military  force.  Ulster  disarmed  in  part.  Many  barbarities  committed, 
but  a  rising  prevented.  The  Directory  of  the  conspirators  in  Dublin 
arrested.  Arrest  and  death  of  Lord  Edward  Fitzgerald,  The  rising 
forced  to  a  head.  Conduct  of  Lord  Clare.  Atrocities  in  parts  of  the 
South.  Outbreak  of  the  Rebellion  of  1798.  Civil  war  in  Wicklow  and 
Wexford.  Gallantry  displayed  on  both  sides.  The  rising  put  down. 
Deeds  of  blood  and  cruelty.  Lord  Cornwallis  made  Viceroy.  State  of 
Ireland  in  179S — 9,  The  Parliament  of  Grattan,  The  descent  of 
Humbert.  Death  of  Wolfe  Tone.  Preparations  for  the  Union,  The 
policy  of  Pitt.  The  Union  at  last  carried  and  by  what  means. 
Reflections. 

The  Settlement  of  1782,  we  have  said,  made  Ireland  approxi- 
mate to  an  independent  state;  her  Parliament  was,  in  theory, 
all  but  Sovereign  in  foreign,  commercial,  and  domestic  affairs. 
The  King  of  England,  indeed,  was  necessarily  King  of  Ireland; 
the  British  Executive  Government  had  an  authority,  analogous 
to  a  ministerial  veto',  on  laws  enacted  by  the  Irish  Parliament. 
But  by  the  letter  of  the  new  Constitution,  at  least,  Protestant 
Ireland,  through  her  Legislature,  was  nearly  supreme,  almost 
absolute  within  the  domain  appertaining  to  it.  The  King  of 
Great  Britain  and  Ireland  could  declare  war ;  the  British 
Parliament  might  enthusiastically  support  this  policy  ;  but  the 
Irish  Parliament  had,  conceivably,  a  power  to  th\vart  it,  to 
refuse  supplies  and  troops  to  maintain  it,  to  pass  resolutions 
protesting  against  it.  So  too,  there  was  nothing  to  prevent  the 
Irish  Parliament  from  prohibiting  British  imports  by  hostile 
tariffs,  from  encouraging  Irish  exports  by  extravagant  bounties, 
nay  even  from  encroaching  on  the  monopolies  of  English 
foreign  trade  by  arrangements  of  its  own.  Above  all,  the 
Constitution  of  1782  gave  to  the  Irish  Parliament  logically  a 
right  to  have  an  Irish  Executive  dependent  on  it,  to  select,  to 
appoint,  and  to  dismiss  its  ministers,  nay  to  make  it  impossible 
for  a  Viceroy  to  hold  ofhce  against  its  will,  though  he  had  been 
nominated  by  the  Crown,  and  though  he  possessed  the  confi- 

^  See  on  this  point,  Ball,  Legislative  Systems^  136  and  note  278 — 6. 


VIII.]  Grattaiis  Parliamoit.  251 

deuce,  in  every  respect,  of  the  British  Government.  It  should  be 
added  that  the  ministerial  veto  on  enactments  passed  by  the  Irish 
Parliament  was,  as  we  have  remarked,  of  scarcely  any  avail ;  in 
the  words  of  one  of  the  ablest  Irishmen  of  his  day,  it  was  "a 
restraint  that  created  a  theoretic  dependence,  but  left  a  practi- 
cal independence^";  and  abstractively,  we  repeat,  Ireland  was 
now  connected  with  Great  Britain  by  the  tie  of  the  Crown 
only. 

It  is  scarcely  necessary  to  point  out  how  a  relation  like 
this — anomalous,  irrational,  and  by  means  of  which  two  states, 
nearly  coequal  in  theory,  were  brought  together  and  called  a 
single  state — was  full  of  elements  of  trouble  and  grave  danger. 
The  Irish  Constitution  of  1782,  however,  was  widely  different 
in  fact  from  what  it  was  on  paper ;  its  essential  vices  were  in 
a  great  measure  checked  by  influences  which  prolonged  its 
existence,  and  possibly  might  have  made  it  endure.  Protestant 
Ireland,  we  have  seen,  was  in  the  main  loyal,  and  devoted  to 
the  connection  with  England;  it  therefore  usually  followed  the 
lead  of  the  British  Parliament  and  the  British  Government ; 
and  even  under  the  new  arrangements  it  acquiesced,  as  a  rule, 
in  what  was  done  at  Westminster,  recalcitrant  as  it  had  been  of 
late.  The  Irish  Presbyterians,  indeed,  had  for  many  years 
shown  signs  of  disaffection,  soon  to  become  perilous,  and 
Catholic  Ireland,  as  yet  an  inert  mass,  was  obviously  a  force 
that  might  prove  formidable;  but  the  Irish  Protestants,  as  a 
people,  remained  disposed  to  bow  to  the  will  of  the  mother 
country,  throughout  the  whole  range  of  affairs  of  state,  unless 
attacks  were  made  on  their  own  interests.  The  Irish  Parlia- 
ment, again,  supreme  in  Ireland,  was,  we  have  seen,  largely  an 
instrument  of  English  power ;  it  represented  the  rule  of  the 
Castle   and   of  a   narrow   oligarchy,   attached   necessarily    to 

^  Speech  of  Speaker  Foster  in  the  Irish  House  of  Commons,  Feb.  17, 
1800.      For   the   reason  that  the  ministerial  veto  was  so  inoperative  see  ■ 
Ball,  ante. 


252  Ireland.  [Chap. 

British  rule  ;  it  was  powerfully  swayed  by  gross  corruption ; 
and  though  it  sometimes  showed  a  will  of  its  own,  and,  as 
always,  was  liable  to  sudden  fits  of  change,  it  continued 
generally  to  follow  in  the  wake  of  the  British  Parliament,  and 
to  obey  the  dictates  of  the  British  Ministry.  More  important 
too,  perhaps,  than  anything  else,  the  Irish  Parliament  never 
claimed  a  right  to  create  an  Executive  subject  to  it;  under  the 
Constitution  of  1782,  as  under  the  state  of  things  that  existed 
before,  it  accepted  the  Viceroy  and  the  Ministers  appointed,  in 
England,  by  the  Crown ;  and  this  single  circumstance  had  a 
most  potent  effect  in  keeping  it  in  the  line  of  British  politics, 
and  in  maintaining  the  connection  between  the  two  countries. 
The  centrifugal  forces,  in  a  word,  were  extremely  strong  under 
the  Settlement  of  1782  ;  but  they  were  largely  controlled  by 
centripetal  forces,  which  prevented  its  flying,  almost  at  once, 
to  pieces^ 

The  tendency  of  the  British  and  Irish  Parliaments,  nay  of 
England  and  Ireland,  to  come  into  conflict  under  the  conditions 
we  have  briefly  described,  would  evidently  be  strongest  in 
times  of  trouble  and  war,  and  in  these  instances  would  be 
most  dangerous.  It  manifested  itself,  however,  even  in  the 
years  of  peace  and  of  general  tranquillity  in  both  islands  which 
preceded  the  outbreak  of  the  Revolution  in  France,  and  the 
world-wide  upheaval  and  strife  that  followed.  On  three  oc- 
casions, from  1782  to  1789,  the  relations  between  the  two 
Legislatures  were  more  or  less  strained,  and  signs  of  dissension 
became  apparent  which  might  have  developed  very  grave 
results.  The  new  Irish  Constitution  had  hardly  been  made 
when  it  was  strenuously  urged  in  the  Irish  Parliament  that  the 

^  The  checks,  which  enabled  the  Irish  Parliament  of  1782  to  work,  in 
some  degree,  in  harmony  with  the  British  Parliament  and  British  Execu- 
tive, could  not  exist  in  the  case  of  any  Irish  Parliament  at  the  present  day; 
and  no  paper  constitution  could  create  them.  Every  one  acquainted  with 
Irish  atTairs  knows  that  the  centrifugal  forces  would  master  the  centripetal. 


VIII.]  Graff a7ts  Parliament.  253 

"  Simple  Repeal "  of  the  Declaratory  Act,  in  which  the  English 
Parliament  had  asserted  a  right  to  bind  Ireland  by  laws  passed 
at  Westminster,  could  not  completely  annul  the  claim.  Flood, 
who  had  been  lately  eclipsed  by  Giattan,  and  had  begun  to 
detest  his  successful  rival,  eagerly  took  up  a  cry  which,  it  must 
be  added,  was  not  without  valid  legal  sanction.  The  British 
Parliament  eluded  a  possible  quarrel  by  passing  an  Act  so- 
lemnly renouncing  the  right ;  but,  at  this  very  moment, 
Portland  and  other  English  statesmen  were  secretly  con- 
demning the  recent  settlement,  and  were  at  least  thinking  of 
expedients  by  which  the  supremacy  of  England  over  Ireland 
might  be  restored.  A  somewhat  graver  occasion  of  dispute 
arose  only  three  years  afterwards.  The  second  Pitt,  by  this 
time  in  power,  with  the  economic  instinct  which  was  his  best 
gift,  wished  to  extend  the  trade  between  England  and  Ireland, 
st*ill,  as  we  have  seen,  in  part  restricted ;  he  sought,  in  return, 
to  induce  Ireland  to  make  a  contribution  to  Imperial  Defence; 
and  he  probably  entertained  a  design  of  securing  for  the 
British  Parliament  and  the  British  Government  a  regulating 
power  over  Irish  foreign  commerce,  an  object  which  Fox,  also, 
had  certainly  at  heart.  The  Irish  Parliament  in  1785  assented 
to  the  propositions  of  the  English  minister ;  but  these  aroused 
such  a  tempest  of  wrath  in  England — the  idea  of  an  increase 
of  free  trade  with  Ireland  was  odious  to  English  commercial 
jealousy — that  Pitt  was  compelled  to  modify  his  first  project ; 
and  the  propositions  subsequently  laid  before  the  Irish  Parlia- 
ment not  only  pressed  hardly  on  Irish  commerce,  but  trenched 
on  the  legislative  independence  which  had  been  the  great  gain 
of  the  Revolution  of  1782,  Grattan  denounced  the  whole 
scheme  in  one  of  the  most  brilliant  and  powerful  of  his 
impassioned  speeches ;  it  was  so  ill  received  that  the  measure 
was  dropped.  The  last  difference  was  the  most  serious  of  all ; 
but  for  an  accident  it  might  have  had  untoward  results.  In 
1788,  when  George  III  became  insane,  the  British  Lords  and 


254  Ireland.  [Chap. 

Commons,  as  is  well  known,  practically  elected  a  Regent  by  a 
stretch  of  power  ;  but  this  was  resented  by  the  Irish  Parliament 
as  an  interference  with  its  Constitutional  rights  ;  and  Grattan 
persuaded  the  Irish  Houses  to  disregard  what  was  being  done 
at  Westminster,  and  to  invite  the  Prince  of  Wales ^  by  an 
address  of  its  own,  to  become  "Regent  of  Ireland."  The 
recovery  of  the  King  brought  the  dispute  to  a  close,  and  no 
mischief  was  actually  done ;  but  it  had  become  evident  that, 
owing  to  the  divergence  in  the  conduct  of  the  British  and  the 
Irish  Parliaments,  the  Head  of  the  State  in  Great  Britain  and 
Ireland  might  be  the  same  person  with  very  different  rights,  or 
even,  conceivably,  different  persons. 

The  Irish  Parliament,  however, — it  has  been  given  the 
name  of  Grattan,  its  chief  founder  on  its  new  basis — seemed 
to  be  more  endangered  at  this  period  by  its  weakness  and  its 
shameful  abuses,  than  by  its  relations  with  the  British  Parlia- 
ment. It  had  not  been  forgotten  that  it  had  resisted  Protestant 
Irish  opinion  for  a  long  time  in  the  movement  of  1779-82  ; 
and  Flood,  backed  by  the  force  of  the  Volunteers,  still  a 
most  formidable  power  in  the  state,  made  a  great  effort  to 
reform  it  in  1783.  The  British  Parliament  of  the  eighteenth 
century  was  by  no  means  free  from  the  grossest  defects ;  but  it 
was  very  different  from  the  ill-ordered  Assembly  which  held  its 
sittings  in  College  Green,  not  far  from  the  centre  of  the  Irish 
capital.  The  Irish  Parliament  contained  some  independent 
men,  especially  of  the  class  of  the  great  resident  gentry;  it 
possessed  a  really  patriotic  party  led  by  an  illustrious  chief, 
Grattan  ;  it  abounded  in  able  and  brilliant  lawyers ;  its  debates 
reveal  considerable  powers  of  thought  and  of  eloquence.  But, 
taken  as  a  whole,  it  was  a  corrupt  assembly,  badly  constituted, 
and  subject  to  evil  influence;  nor  did  it  represent  in  any  real 

^  Excellent  authorities  have  long  ago  maintained  that  the  conduct  of  the 
Irish  Parliament,  on  this  occasion,  was  more  wise  and  constitutional  than 
that  of  the  British  Houses. 


VIII.]  G rattans  Parliament.  255 

sense  even  the  dominant  caste  of  Protestant  Ireland.  Its 
House  of  Lords  had  a  large  array  of  Bishops,  mere  mouth- 
pieces of  the  Government  of  the  day ;  its  lay  Peers  were  for 
the  most  part  composed  of  ennobled  descendants  of  the  old 
plebeian  settlers,  and  of  men  elevated  to  their  present  rank  by 
the  worst  kind  of  patronage.  Such  a  body  was  not  an 
aristocracy  worthy  of  the  name ;  the  Irish  House  of  Commons 
was,  in  many  respects,  even  worse.  Its  constitution  had  not 
been  changed  by  the  Revolution  of  1782;  it  remained,  as 
regards  the  mass  of  its  members,  an  assembly  of  nominees  of 
the  Government,  and  of  the  great  ruling  oligarchy  of  the 
"Irish  interest."  Of  its  300  seats,  not  100  were  open,  that  is, 
subject  to  the  Electorate's  will;  more  than  200  had  become 
the  property  of  the  Crown,  and  of  leading  nobles  and 
commoners,  the  absolute  owners  of  the  numerous  petty 
boroughs,  who  were  thus  supreme  in  the  Lower  House  in 
Ireland.  The  Irish  House  of  Commons,  too,  had  been  long 
crowded  with  pensioners  and  placemen  of  many  kinds;  it 
contained,  it  has  been  said,  more  than  100  of  these;  and 
Grattan  compared  these  mere  tools  of  the  Castle  to  "animals  of 
prey  in  the  guise  of  senators,  disgracing  the  seats  which  once 
belonged  to  the  people."  And  the  Irish  House  of  Commons, 
we  must  bear  in  mind,  was  not  only  wholly  composed  of  the 
Protestant  caste,  but  was  elected  by  the  Protestant  caste  only, 
and  its  electorate  was  exceedingly  small.  Catholic  Ireland 
was  no  more  represented  in  it,  than  a  Red  Indian  tribe  is  in 
the  American  Senate. 

The  movement,  however,  of  Flood  for  reform  completely 
collapsed  and  came  to  nothing.  The  Volunteers,  indeed,  held 
an  Assembly  in  Dublin ;  an  eccentric  Prelate,  the  Bishop  of 
Derry,  spoke  at  this  Convention,  as  it  was  called,  in  the  most 
reckless  language.  But  Charlemont  had  wisely  placed  himself 
at  their  head ;  the  Delegates  were,  for  the  most  part,  moderate 
men ;  and  no  attempt  was  made  to  overcome  the  Parliament 


256  Ireland.  [Chap. 

by  a  display,  as  was  feared,  of  military  force.  The  Reform 
Bill  of  Flood  would  have  made  a  real  change  in  the  electorate 
and  the  representation  of  Protestant  Ireland ;  but,  in  con- 
sonance with  his  well-known  views,  it  kept  the  Irish  Catholics 
still  excluded  from  the  state ;  it  denied  them  the  smallest 
share  of  political  power ;  it  could  have  only  been  a  makeshift 
for  a  time.  It  was  twice  summarily  rejected  by  the  Irish 
Parliament  \  and  Grattan,  though  a  reformer,  even  then,  on 
principle,  gave  it,  it  should  be  observed,  but  a  lukewarm 
support,  perhaps  because  he  was  fiercely  opposed  to  Flood, 
whom  he  had  lately  denounced  in  a  ruthless  philippic.  There 
was  in  fact  no  pressure  from  without  at  the  time  to  compel  the 
Irish  Parliament  to  reform  itself;  the  very  idea  was  odious  to 
the  English  Government ;  and  the  present  season  was  by  no 
means  opportune.  From  1782  to  1789  the  material  progress 
of  Ireland  was  very  marked ;  an  organic  change  in  her  consti- 
tution seemed  out  of  place  and  reason.  Her  prosperity,  no 
doubt,  was  comparative  only,  and  was  interrupted  by  one  or 
two  bad  years ;  whole  counties  were  still  in  a  most  backward 
state,  especially  parts  of  Munster  and  Connaught;  and  there 
was  a  fresh  outbreak  of  Whiteboy  outrages  and  many  other 
signs  of  agrarian  disorder.  But  the  correspondence  of  all  the 
Viceroys  in  office,  and  numberless  speeches  in  the  Irish 
Parliament,  prove  that  Ireland  made  a  real  advance  in  wealth 
and  resources  at  this  period,  and  that,  too,  tried  by  every 
possible  test.  Her  finances  were  in  a  singularly  flourishing 
state;  they  even  bore  the  strain  of  the  evil  times  that  followed. 
Her  agriculture  developed  apace;  huge  areas  of  pasture 
became  tillage ;  and  if  this  was  largely  an  artificial  change, 
the  result  was  an  immediate  increase  of  opulence.  Her  linen 
manufacture,  too,  made  immense  progress ;  the  chief  seat  of 
this  industry,  Ulster,  became  the  most  stirring  and  perhaps  the 
richest  of  the  Irish  provinces,  notwithstanding  the  troubles  of 
a  not  distant  past;  and  other  manufactures  grew  up  in  Leinster 


VIII.]  Grattaiis  Parliament.  257 

and  Munster.  Nor  were  the  causes  of  this  improvement 
difficult  to  ascertain ;  the  expansion  of  trade,  to  a  great  extent 
set  free,  the  relaxation  of  the  barbarous  Penal  Code,  which 
brought  land  into  commerce  again,  nay  the  hopes  inspired  by 
the  Revolution  of  1782,  quickened  enterprise  and  increased 
wealth ;  even  the  legislation  of  the  Irish  Parliament,  which 
favoured  bounties,  corn  laws  and  protective  duties,  had  ten- 
dencies in  the  same  direction,  at  least  for  a  time. 

The  prospect  for  Ireland,  therefore,  from  1782  to  1789, 
was  not  without  promise  in  the  future,  anomalous  as  was  her 
political  system.  But,  apart  from  her  relations  with  England, 
the  dominant  state,  we  can  now  see  that  her  institutions  must 
have  been  greatly  changed,  if  her  Constitution  was  to  have  a 
chance  of  permanence.  Her  Parliament,  the  corrupt  conclave 
of  an  exclusive  caste,  divided  from  the  people  in  race  and 
faith,  should  have  been  thrown  open  to  Protestant  and 
Catholic  alike;  the  petty  boroughs  should  have  been  swept 
away  ■  the  electorate  should  have  been  composed  of  all  classes, 
without  regard  to  religious  distinctions.  Catholic  Ireland 
should  have  been  received  within  the  Pale  of  the  State,  not 
treated  as  a  subject  community ;  Catholics  should  have  been 
admitted  to  all  offices  of  trust,  and  placed  on  the  same  level 
of  rights  as  Protestants.  If  the  Established  Church,  too,  was 
to  be  left  standing,  the  iniquity  of  the  tithe  should  have  been 
removed,  especially  as  the  impost  oppressed  the  Presbyterian 
no  less  than  the  Catholic,  and  was  felt  by  both  to  be  a  cruel 
grievance.  But  even  Grattan,  the  chief  of  the  Irish  Liberals, 
did  not  in  these  years  advocate  such  large  reforms,  though 
they  were  in  accord  with  his  political  sympathies.  He  con- 
tented himself  at  this  time  with  denouncing  the  abuses  of 
the  Irish  Parliament,  and  with  proposing  a  change  in  the 
system  of  tithe ;  he  did  not,  earnestly  at  least,  as  yet  urge  the 
questions  of  Parliamentary  Reform  and  CathoHc  rights.  He 
doubtless  felt  that  it  would  be  hopeless  to  attempt  to  bring 

M.  I.  ./'  17 


258  h'cland.  [Chap. 

forward  projects  of  this  kind;  and  he  seems  to  have  thought 
that  Ireland  was  in  need  of  political  rest  after  the  events  of 
1782.  Unquestionably,  however,  Parliamentary  Reform  and 
Catholic  Emancipation,  as  it  had  begun  to  be  called,  were 
objects  next  to  this  great  man's  heart ;  his  ideal  was  an 
Ireland  really  made  a  nation  by  the  union  of  her  races  and 
creeds  under  an  equal  law  and  represented  in  a  free  and 
popular  Parliament ;  but  an  Ireland,  too,  in  which  the  Protes- 
tant classes  would  retain  the  ascendency  inseparable  from  the 
ownership  of  the  great  mass  of  the  land  of  the  country,  and 
from  a  superiority  in  civilisation  and  wealth. 

The  reforms,  indeed,  that  Ireland  required  were  simply 
impossible  at  this  period.  Pitt  was  in  the  plenitude  of  his 
power  in  England ;  but  as  a  constitutional  statesman  he  did 
not  interfere  with  the  state  of  things  established  in  1782, 
except  indirectly,  and  at  grave  crises.  He  gave  little  attention 
to  Irish  affairs  at  this  time;  his  knowledge  of  them,  indeed, 
was  always  imperfect,  a  defect  unhappily  common  to  many 
who  have  filled  his  place ;  and  he  had  nothing  of  his  great 
father's  insight  into  men  and  things  beyond  his  experience. 
As  an  economist  he  recommended  a  commutation  of  the  Irish 
tithe,  but  he  made  no  attempt  to  settle  a  question  already 
provoking  intense  discontent.  Whatever  may  have  been  the 
case  as  to  England,  he  trifled  with  Parliamentary  Reform  in 
Ireland;  and  as  to  Catholic  Emancipation',  he  professed 
himself  opposed  to  it  in  the  early  years  of  his  ministry.  In 
this  state  of  things  the  men  in  power  at  the  Castle  and  the 
oligarchy  who  ruled  the  Irish  Parliament  were  given  a  tree 
hand  to  do  as  they  pleased ;  and  they  rejected  every  project  of 
reform,  a  commutation  of  the  tithe,  a  plan  to  remove  the 
worst  abuses  in  the  Irish  Parliament,  any  change  in  the 
existing  Parliamentary  system,  even  the  slightest  extension  of 

^  See   a   remarkable   letter   of    Pitt   cited   by   Mr   Lecky,    History  of 
England  in  the  Eighteenth   Century,  vi.  375. 


viii.J  The  Rebellion  of  1798.  259 

Catholic  liberty.  They  entrenched  themselves,  in  a  word, 
behind  institutions,  as  narrow  and  iniquitous  as  those  of 
Venice,  but  without  the  grand  Venetian  traditions ;  as  things 
went  on  reasonably  well  in  Ireland  they  governed  without  a 
thought  of  the  morrow.  The  master-spirit  of  this  selfish  Junta 
was  John  Fitzgibbon,  a  lawyer  of  humble  origin,  but  a  man  of 
remarkable  parts  and  great  force  of  character,  a  most  com- 
manding figure  in  Irish  politics  in  the  later  years  of  the 
eighteenth  century.  Fitzgibbon  had  meditated  deeply  on 
Irish  History;  he  believed  that  the  liberalism  of  his  own 
time  had  not  effaced  the  animosities  of  the  past  in  Ireland,  or 
even  made  a  great  change  in  the  profound  distinctions  of  race 
and  faith  which  divided  her  people ;  he  thought  the  ideal  of 
Grattan  midsummer  madness ;  and  he  declared  that  Ireland 
could  never  become  a  nation  in  the  true  sense  of  the  word.  For 
these  reasons  he  had  convinced  himself  that  Protestant 
ascendency  must  be  maintained  in  Ireland ;  that  Catholic 
subjection  must  continue ;  that  if  Protestant  Ireland  was  to 
exist,  it  must  depend  for  support  on  England ;  that  the  best 
way  to  accomplish  this  was  to  leave  things  in  their  present 
state ;  and  he  therefore  strenuously  opposed  the  policy  of  re- 
forming the  Irish  Parliament,  and  of  making  further  concessions 
to  Catholic  Ireland.  His  views  unquestionably  contained  much 
truth,  and  some  of  his  predictions  have  been  unhappily  fulfilled; 
but  history  may  ask  if  his  own  course  of  conduct  did  not  largely 
contribute  to  these  results. 

The  French  Revolution  came  like  a  tempest  to  disturb  a 
season  of  comparative  peace  in  Ireland,  and  to  shake  to  its 
foundations  the  ill-ordered  structure  of  her  constitution  and 
social  life.  Its  influence  was  first  seen  in  Presbyterian  Ulster, 
where  many  causes  concurred  to  give  it  no  ordinary  force. 
The  National  Assembly  had  swept  away  the  old  order  of 
things  in  France,  had  put  an  end  to  exclusive  privilege,  had 
founded  institutions  on  a  democratic  basis ;  all  this  aroused  the 

17 — 2 


26o  Ireland.  [Chap. 

sympathies  of  the  Presbyterian  Irish,  who  had  long  been  kept 
down  by  unjust  laws  and  by  the  rule  of  an  aristocratic  caste, 
who  had  scarcely  a  voice  in  the  Irish  Parliament,  and  who 
disliked  a  system  of  government  which  shut  them  out  from  its 
sphere.  The  Church,  too,  in  France  had  fallen  and  the  tithe 
with  it ;  French  republican  ideas  were  abroad  j  and  a  com- 
munity, chiefly  composed  of  farmers  and  traders,  which  could 
not  endure  Prelacy,  had  long  denounced  tithe,  and  had  a 
traditional  distaste  for  monarchy,  especially  when  upheld  by  a 
narrow  dominant  class,  was  deeply  stirred  by  these  great  and 
sudden  changes.  A  movement  in  favour  of  a  thorough  reform 
of  the  Irish  Parliament,  of  a  large  extension  of  the  electoral 
franchise,  and  perhaps  against  the  Established  Church  and 
tithe,  spread  from  Belfast,  now  a  growing  seat  of  trade,  over 
many  towns  of  the  Northern  Province  and  even  in  large 
parts  of  the  rural  districts ;  and  it  drew  into  it  all  that  was 
most  daring  and  enthusiastic  in  Presbyterian  Ireland.  Several 
leaders  of  the  movement,  which  in  a  few  months  acquired 
considerable  strength  and  volume,  were  able  and  energetic 
men ;  its  chief  director  was  Theobald  Wolfe  Tone,  a  young 
lawyer  of  no  common  powers  and  a  very  remarkable  man  of 
action,  who  even  at  this  time  had  revolutionary  ends  in  view, 
and  probably  was  at  heart  a  rebel.  Tone  saw  clearly  that  even 
to  attain  the  objects  his  colleagues  had  set  before  them,  still 
more  to  compass  what  he  aimed  at  himself,  it  would  be 
necessary  to  obtain  general  and  powerful  popular  support ;  and 
for  this  he  looked  to  the  mass  of  Catholic  Ireland,  still  almost 
passive,  but  beginning  to  stir  in  some  of  its  parts  with 
quickening  life,  and  subject  to  many  grievances  and  wrongs. 
He  founded  in  1791  the  Society  of  United  Irishmen,  the 
original  centre  of  which  was  in  Ulster;  its  professed  aim  was 
to  combine  a  demand  for  Parliamentary  reform  with  the  con- 
cession of  Catholic  emancipation  in  the  widest  sense ;  it  hoped 
in  this  way  to  enlist  Catholic  Ireland  in  its  cause. 


VIII.]  The  Rebellion  of  1798.  261 

The  French  Revolution  had  meanwhile  been  making  its 
influence  felt  in  Catholic  Ireland.  The  few  Catholic  nobles 
and  gentlemen  of  high  degree, — descendants,  for  the  most  part, 
of  the  old  Englishry — who  had  preserved  the  wrecks  of  their 
estates,  were  alarmed  at  its  anarchic  tendencies ;  their  sym- 
pathies were  with  the  perishing  French  Monarchy ;  and  this 
was  the  feeling  of  the  higher  Catholic  clergy.  But  the  Catholic 
mercantile  class,  which  had  been  growing  up  in  Ireland,  and 
had  gradually  acquired  wealth  and  power,  saw  in  the  inaugura- 
tion of  the  new  era  in  France  and  in  the  establishment  of  a 
political  system  based  on  the  assertion  of  the  Rights  of  Man 
and  of  religious  and  civil  equality  in  the  extreme  sense,  the 
prospect  of  abolishing  the  whole  Penal  Code  and  of  raising 
Catholic  Ireland  out  of  its  present  condition ;  the  very  con- 
cessions which  had  been  obtained  made  it  the  more  determined 
to  seek  a  less  imperfect  Hberty.  A  Catholic  Committee  to 
sustain  the  Catholic  cause  had  existed  in  Dublin  since  1759; 
its  aristocratic  leaders  left  it  at  this  juncture;  but  their  places 
were  filled  by  men  of  a  very  different  type ;  and  these  co- 
operated with  the  United  Irishmen.  The  appointment  of 
Wolfe  Tone  to  be  the  secretary  of  the  Catholic  Committee 
marked  the  alliance  of  that  body  and  the  Society  in  Belfast ; 
the  two  began  thenceforward  to  act  in  concert.  The  French 
Revolution  at  the  same  time  had  gradually  affected  the  subject 
masses  of  the  Irish  Catholics,  still  little  better  than  serfs. 
They  heard  that  in  the  great  land,  whither  their  fathers  had 
gone  for  three  generations  to  fight  its  battles,  a  dominant  and 
oppressive  Church  had  been  overthrown ;  that  an  aristocracy, 
lording  it  over  the  children  of  the  soil,  had  fallen  ;  that  tithe 
had  been  abolished  and  the  exactions  of  landlords ;  and,  in  the 
liberation  of  the  peasantry  of  France,  they  felt  dimly  a  hope 
of  liberation  for  themselves.  A  movement,  dull,  feeble,  and 
aimless  as  yet,  stirred  these  inert  multitudes  in  a  few  counties ; 
but  it  showed  itself,  not  in  a  cry  for  political  changes,  but  in 


262  Ireland.  [Chap. 

a  widespread  disinclination  to  pay  tithe,  and  even  rent,  and  in 
occasional  risings  against  the  landed  gentry.  Emissaries  from 
Wolfe  Tone  and  his  colleagues  quickened  the  impulse;  the 
Whiteboy  system  had  prepared  the  way ;  there  was  a  consider- 
able outburst  of  agrarian  disorder  and  crime. 

The  two  movements,  distinct  as  yet,  but  already  tending  to 
run  into  each  other,  went  on  rapidly  through  1792.  The 
United  Irishmen  estabhshed  a  violent  Press  in  Ulster;  volun- 
teers were  enrolled  in  the  name  of  National  Guards;  the 
Society  organised  itself  in  many  parts  of  the  North ;  and 
numerous  societies  were  affiliated  to  it,  in  Dublin,  and  other 
towns  of  the  South.  From  these  centres  the  new  doctrines 
were  disseminated  far  and  wide  through  the  country;  and 
exactly  as  had  happened  in  France,  where  the  ruin  of 
the  Seigneurs  had  illustrated  the  Rights  of  Man,  the  revolt  of 
the  peasantry  against  their  superiors  became  more  and  more 
general.  The  state  of  lawless  disturbance  on  the  increase  in 
Ireland,  and  especially  the  inclination  of  two  forces,  Presby- 
terianism  and  Catholicism,  hitherto  fiercely  opposed,  to  form 
a  coahtion,  ominous  and  strange,  perplexed  and  alarmed  the 
British  Ministry,  the  more  so  that  many  Protestants  of  the 
Anglican  Church  had  joined  the  ranks  of  the  United  Irishmen. 
After  many  hesitations  and  long  delays,  Pitt,  completely  re- 
versing his  late  policy,  resolved  to  make  the  Irish  Catholics 
^  large  concessions ;  in  this  he  probably  was  inspired  by  Burke, 
the  lifelong  friend  of  Catholic  Ireland,  who  always  had  strong 
Catholic  sympathies,  and  who,  in  the  existing  state  of  Europe, 
sought  to  combat  French  Jacobinism  with  the  powerful  forces 
through  which  Catholicism  appeals  to  man;  and  Pitt,  doubt- 
less, too,  was  alive  to  the  facts,  that  war  with  France  was 
already  at  hand,  and  that  England  would  "have  Catholic  Powers 
as  allies.  In  1792  the  Irish  Parliament  had  passed  an  Act, 
which  removed,  but  only  to  a  small  extent,  the  disabilities  still 
affecting  the  Irish  Catholics ;  Pitt,  a  few  weeks  before  war  was 


VIII.]  The  Rebellion  of  1798.  263 

proclaimed,  insisted  that  a  much  larger  measure  should  be 
brought  forward,  against  the  protest  of  the  Irish  Government, 
and  especially  of  Fitzgibbon,  who  had  been  made  Chancellor, 
and  for  some  time  was  supreme  at  the  Castle.  The  proposed 
scheme  though  with  large  and  somewhat  galling  exceptions  ad- 
mitted the  Irish  Catholic  to  many  offices  of  trust ;  and  it  thus 
secured  him,  really  for  the  first  time,  a  share  of  political  rights 
in  the  State.  But  its  most  striking  and  greatest  feature  was 
this :  it  gave  the  Catholic  the  electoral  franchise,  while  it  did 
not  permit  him  to  have  a  seat  in  Parliament. 

The  measure  was  introduced  into  the  Irish  Parliament 
under  conditions  that  illustrate,  very  clearly,  the  nature  of 
the  Constitution  of  1782.  According  to  true  Parliamentary 
usage,  Grattan  and  his  adherents  should  have  been  placed  in 
office,  and  should  have  had  the  honour  and  the  responsibility 
of  a  great  reform  carrying  out  their  policy,  at  least  in  part; 
this  would  have  been  the  case,  as  a  matter  of  course,  at  West- 
minster. But  the  conduct  of  the  Bill  was  left  to  the  men  in 
power  at  the  Castle,  notoriously  its  professed  opponents  ;  the 
majority  in  their  hands  were  bidden  to  support  it,  and  it  was 
thus  deprived  of  all  that  would  give  it  grace  and  significance. 
It  passed,  however,  easily  through  both  the  Irish  Houses — 
if  not  without  a  bitter  speech  of  Fitzgibbon — for  the  Govern- 
ment was  all  powerful  in  both ;  and  not  only  Grattan  and  his 
followers,  but  the  independent  party  of  the  leading  and  resident 
Irish  gentry,  assailed  as  they  already  were  as  landlords,  were 
still  in  favour  of  concessions  to  the  Irish  Catholics,  as  they  had 
been  from  1771  to  1782.  But  the  essential  vices  and  defects 
of  the  measure  were  exposed,  with  great  ability,  by  two  or  three 
of  these  very  men ;  in  truth  it  was  an  ill  conceived  and  mis- 
chievous scheme,  too.  characteristic  of  the  inexperience  of  Irish 
affairs,  often  exhibited  by  Pitt  and  his  colleagues.  It  proposed 
to  enfranchise  the  Catholic  multitude,  that  is  to  flood  the 
constituencies,  at  a  critical  moment,  with  masses  of  servile  and 


264  IreliUid.  [Chap. 

ignorant  ])easants ;  and  yet  it  kept  out  of  Parliament  the 
Catholic  gentry,  the  very  class  which  it  ought  to  have  brought 
in.  It  is  not  easy  to  understand  the  reason  of  such  a  plan, 
certain  in  time  to  be  fraught  with  great  evil;  but  not  im- 
probably Pitt  and  the  English  Ministers  thought — as  actually 
was  the  case  for  many  years — that  the  Irish  Catholic  voters 
would  continue  to  be  mere  passive  instruments  of  their 
superiors,  and  that  the  Bill  therefore  would  not  have  much 
effect,  and  would  be  a  large  reform  in  appearance  mainly. 
The  measure  was  accompanied  by  other  measures  which 
reduced  the  number  of  placemen  and  pensioners  in  the  Irish 
House  of  Commons,  and  faintly  presaged  further  reforms  in 
Parliament;  and  steps  were  taken  to  form  a  militia  force  in 
Ireland,  and  to  disband  the  Volunteers  in  Ulster,  who  had 
proclaimed  themselves  a  National  Guard. 

The  United  Irish  and  agrarian  movements  appear  to  have 
become  less  active,  for  some  months,  after  the  Relief  Act,  as  it 
was  called,  of  1793.  Their  organisations,  indeed,  were  no 
doubt  extended,  and  communications  had  begun  to  be  opened 
with  France,  now  engaged  in  a  desperate  strife  with  Europe ; 
but  they  were  not  so  potent  as  they  had  been,  at  least  on  the 
surface.  This  was  probably  due,  in  part,  to  the  still  uncertain 
state  of  the  war;  in  part  to  the  repressive  measures  of  the 
Irish  Parliament,  and  to  its  attitude  of  loyalty  to  the  British 
Government ;  but  in  part,  also,  to  the  recent  concessions,  which 
detached  some  Catholic  leaders  from  their  Protestant  allies.  A 
Catholic  Convention,  which  had  been  called  together,  was 
dissolved  when  the  late  Act  was  passed ;  it  is  very  remarkable 
that  the  failure  to  carry  a  measure  of  ParHamentary  Reform,  in 
the  Session  of  1794,  though  it  blasted  the  hopes  of  the 
United  Irishmen,  did  not  cause  an  outburst  of  widespread 
disorder.  For  a  moment,  indeed,  it  seemed  not  impossible 
that  the  elements  of  trouble  in  Ireland  might  be  set  at  rest.  In 
the  first  days  of   1795,   Lord   Fitzwilliam,  a    member  of  the 


VIII.]  The  Rebellion  of  1798.  265 

great  Whig  Secession,  was  sent  to  Ireland,  as  Lord  Lieutenant ; 
and,  beyond  question,  he  had  permission  to  give  the  counten- 
ance of  the  Government  to  further  concessions  to  demands 
made  by  the  Irish  Catholics,  who,  very  properly,  were  not 
satisfied  with  the  imperfect  measure  of  1793,  and  claimed  to 
be  placed  on  a  complete  equality  of  political  and  civil  rights 
with  the  Protestants.  All  Catholic  Ireland  concurred  in  this 
demand,  especially  the  Peerage,  the  gentry,  and  the  superior 
clergy.  Conservative,  to  a  man,  in  their  instincts;  and  had  it 
been  complied  with,  it  might  have  happened  that  Irish  History 
would  have  opened  a  brighter  page,  and  have  not  had  to  record 
the  tragic  events  that  followed.  Fitzwilliam  entered,  as  was 
his  Constitutional  course,  into  negotiations  with  Grattan  and 
his  friends,  who,  however,  refused  to  take  office  ;  and  he  re- 
peatedly urged  on  the  English  Cabinet  the  pressing  need  of 
Catholic  Emancipation  in  the  fullest  sense.  He  was,  however, 
somewhat  hasty  and  indiscreet;  he  infuriated  the  Junta  in 
power  at  the  Castle,  by  dismissing  one  of  their  most  prominent 
men,  and  by  threatening  to  dismiss  others  ;  and  he  was  perhaps 
rather  too  pronounced  in  his  official  language.  He  was  at  a 
moment's  notice  removed  from  his  post,  with  an  angry  minis- 
terial reproof,  thougli  the  Cabinet  had  at  least  acquiesced  in  his 
conduct,  and  it  was  announced  that  concessions  to  the  Irish 
Catholics  were  not  to  be  made,  nay,  that  a  complete  change  in 
Irish  policy  was  to  take  place.  It  is  impossible  for  us  to  enlarge 
on  this  subject';  but  it  is  almost  certain  that  Fitzwilliam  was 
made  a  victim  of  intrigues  begun  at  the  Castle,  and  calculated 
to  tell  with  effect  in  England,  and  also  of  the  bigotry  of 
George  III,  who  through  representations  made  by  Fitzgibbon 
— his  "  leprous  distilment "  seems  to  have  reached  the  ear  of 
the  King — had  set  his  conscience  against  the  Catholic  claims. 

^  By  many  degrees  the  best  account  of  this  most  important  episode  in 
Irish  history  will  be  found  in  Mr  Lecky's  History  of  England  in  the 
Eighteenth  Century^  Vol.  vii.  cliap.  26,  pp.  32,  97. 


266  Ireland.  [Chap. 

Fitzwilliam's  departure  from  Ireland  was  a  day  of  mourning; 
farewell  was  bidden  him  in  the  voice  of  a  disappointed  people ; 
"a  cloud,"  it  has  been  said,  "has  ever  since  hung  on  the  land." 
It  is  impossible  to  assert  that  a  frank  compliance  with  the 
demands  of  the  Catholics,  at  this  juncture,  would  have  pre- 
vented the  horrors  of  1798;  all  that  is  certain  is  that  an 
opportunity  was  lost,  and  that  thenceforward  events  took  a 
most  unhappy  course.  Lord  Camden  was  made  Fitzwilliam's 
successor;  his  mission  was  to  restore  the  old  system  of 
Protestant  Ascendency  in  a  changed  era,  and  to  keep  Catholic 
Ireland  down,  when  the  United  Irishmen  were  appealing  to  it, 
when  it  was  already  gravely  disturbed,  and  when  the  French 
Republic,  triumphant  over  a  world  of  foes,  was  proclaiming  the 
Evangel  of  the  Rights  of  Man.  The  Junta  at  the  Castle  was 
given  a  new  lease  of  power ;  Fitzgibbon  was  raised  to  the 
historic  peerage  of  Clare ;  efforts  were  made  to  arouse  religious 
animosities  in  the  Irish  Parliament,  and  even  in  different  parts 
of  the  country.  This  bad  policy — Pitt  probably  was  not  aware 
of  it — was  severely  condemned  by  leading  men  in  not  a  few 
counties ;  their  able  protests  remain,  and  do  them  honour. 

The  conduct  of  the  Government  now  gave  an  enormous 
impulse  to  the  United  Irish  movement,  and  to  the  agrarian 
disorder  of  Catholic  Ireland ;  the  success  of  the  arms  of 
France,  no  doubt,  cooperated  in  the  same  direction.  The 
United  Irish  leaders,  seeing  there  was  no  hope  of  accomplishing 
their  ends  by  Constitutional  means,  began,  as  Tone  had  done 
from  the  first,  to  think  that  revolution  was  their  only  chance ; 
they  gradually  turned  into  dark  and  desperate  courses.  Their 
organisation  was  made  military ;  their  societies  were  prepared 
for  a  call  to  the  field;  supplies  of  arms  were  eagerly  sought; 
the  districts  in  which  they  possessed  influence  were  placed 
under  the  command  of  ofiicers ;  and  attempts  were  made 
secretly  to  enrol  and  drill  levies  capable  of  an  armed  rising. 
The  emissaries  sent  to  France  became  more  numerous ;   the 


VIII.]  71ie  Rebellion  of  1798.  267 

principal  of  these  was  Lord  Edward  Fitzgerald,  a  scion  of  the 
great  Geraldine  name ;  and  the  heads  of  the  French  Republic 
were  invited  to  strike  England  through  Ireland,  and  to  set  the 
Irish  people  free.  At  the  same  time,  true  to  their  policy  from 
the  first,  the  United  Irishmen  made  renewed  efforts  to  drag 
Catholic  Ireland  into  their  wake;  the  confiscation  of  the  land 
was  held  out  as  a  bribe  to  a  credulous  peasantry;  Irishmen 
were  to  have  their  own  when  they  were  released  from  the 
bonds  of  landlords  and  the  collectors  of  tithe.  A  movement, 
now  distinctly  rebellious,  was  thus  linked  with  a  movement 
springing  from  the  land ;  thousands  of  Catholics  fell  into  the 
United  Irish  ranks;  agrarian  outbreaks,  in  many  places, 
assumed  the  aspect  of  a  predial  war ;  and  the  tendency  of 
Irish  agrarian  trouble  to  resist  the  power  of  the  State,  and  to 
become  revolutionary,  grew  very  manifest.  As  yet,  however, 
the  United  Irishmen,  except  in  Ulster,  were  hardly  organised ; 
and  the  Catholic  peasantry  were  still  a  chaotic  mass,  tossed 
hither  and  thither,  without  real  leaders, 

A  movement,  meanwhile,  of  a  very  different  kind,  directly 
opposed  to  that  of  the  United  Irishmen,  but  indirectly  giving 
it  powerful  aid,  had  been  acquiring  considerable  strength  in 
Ulster,  and  even  extending  beyond  its  limits.  In  the  Northern 
Province,  the  Celtic  Irishry,  all  Catholic,  and  the  Protestant 
descendants  of  the  old  settlers,  were,  in  many  districts,  closely 
intermixed  ;  perennial  feuds  had  existed  between  them.  This 
state  of  disorder  had  greatly  increased,  as  lawlessness  had 
spread  through  parts  of  Ulster;  and  from  1791  to  1795  the 
Protestant  Peep-of-Day  Boys,  as  they  were  called,  and  the 
Catholic  Defenders  came  into  repeated  conflict.  The  first- 
named  body,  largely  composed  of  members  of  the  Established 
Church  in  the  lower  ranks  of  life,  disliked  the  Presbyterian 
and  United  Irish  movement,  which  Catholic  Ireland  was 
invited  to  join ;  they  formed  the  Orange  Society,  as  it  has 
ever  since  been  called;  and  they  began  to  proclaim  a  kind  of 


268  Ireland.  [Chap. 

Holy  War  against  the  Catholic  population  in  parts  of  Ulster. 
The  ranks  of  the  Orangemen  rapidly  increased;  their  organi- 
sation became  powerful,  and  spread  even  to  the  Southern 
Provinces ;  undoubtedly  it  obtained  the  support  of  a  con- 
siderable number  of  the  Ulster  gentry,  and  possibly  even 
of  the  Irish  Government.  Irregular  attacks,  often  savagely 
avenged,  were  made,  from  time  to  time,  on  the  Catholics 
of  the  North ;  and  hundreds  of  peasant  families  were  driven 
from  their  homes,  and  sent  in  poverty  and  despair  to  find 
refuge  in  counties  of  the  South.  This  crusade,  which  quick- 
ened the  religious  animosities  of  the  past,  thwarted  the  policy 
of  the  United  Irish  leaders,  who  sought  to  combine  all  Irishmen 
in  support  of  their  cause ;  but  they  perceived  how  they  might 
turn  it  to  account ;  and  they  acted  with  no  little  skill  and 
promptitude.  They  spread  abroad  the  report,  multiplied  by  a 
thousand  tongues,  that  the  dreaded  Protestant  Saxons  of  Ulster 
had  banded  themselves  together  to  effect  the  destruction  of 
Celtic  and  Catholic  Ireland;  that  what  was  being  already  done 
was  a  presage  only  of  atrocities  worse  than  the  Cromwellian 
Conquest;  and  that  the  only  hope  for  the  Irish  Catholic  was 
to  join  heart  and  hand  the  patriotic  League,  which  offered  him 
liberty,  and  would  secure  him  safety.  These  rumours  had  extra- 
ordinary effect  on  an  ignorant  and  down-trodden  peasantry; 
after  the  Orange  outrages,  immense  numbers  of  the  Catholics  of 
the  South,  as  well  as  the  North,  took  the  oath  of  the  United 
Irishmen,  and  enrolled  themselves  on  the  lists  of  their  musters, 
many,  without  knowing  it,  thus  embarking  in  a  rebellious  cause. 
It  is  certain,  however,  that  at  this  juncture,  the  Irish 
Catholics  were  not  prepared  to  attempt  to  rise  against  the 
State  in  force.  Wolfe  Tone  landed  at  Havre  in  the  first 
months  of  1796 — one  of  other  emissaries  but  their  born 
leader;  and  his  capacity  and  earnestness  made  a  real 
impression  on  the  Directory,  then  in  the  seat  of  power  in 
Paris.     He  advocated  a  formidable  descent  on  Ireland,  with 


vrir.]  TJie  Rebellion  of  1798.  269 

the  arguments  of  an  enthusiastic  rebel ;  it  is  to  his  credit 
that  he  made  scarcely  a  stipulation  for  himself,  and  that  he 
tried  to  obtain  pledges  that,  in  the  event  of  success,  his  country 
was  not  to  be  made  a  dependency  of  France.  A  large  fleet, 
carrying  15,000  troops,  under  the  command  of  the  illustrious 
Hoche,  set  sail  from  Brest,  in  December,  upon  the  enterprise; 
it  is  remarkable  that  it  did  not  make  for  Dublin,  or  a  port  of 
Ulster  as  Tone  had  advised ;  it  sought  to  effect  a  landing  on 
the  extreme  verge  of  Munster,  perhaps  because  an  attempt  of 
the  kind  had  proved  successful  more  than  a  century  before. 
The  French  navy,  however,  was  in  a  wretched  state ;  Hoche, 
in  a  frigate,  never  reached  the  Irish  coast,  and  the  principal 
part  of  the  invading  fleet,  after  making  Bantry  Bay  in  safety, 
was  driven  out  to  sea  by  a  furious  tempest.  It  has  been 
thought,  however,  that  Grouchy,  the  second  in  command,  might 
have  landed  with  a  not  inconsiderable  force;  if  so  Munster 
might  have  been  overrun,  and  become  for  a  time  a  French 
province^ ;  on  this  occasion,  as  on  the  day  of  Waterloo,  Grouchy 
perhaps  did  England  really  good  service.  The  failure  of  the 
expedition  has  been  ascribed  to  chance;  History  more  justly 
points  out  that  it  is  not  easy  to  invade  an  island,  cut  off 
from  the  Continent  by  a  dangerous  and  most  stormy  sea, 
especially  with  an  inferior  naval  force.  Yet  the  most  striking 
feature  of  the  descent  was  this  :  the  Irish  Catholics,  assumed 
by  Tone  and  his  colleagues  to  be  burning  to  rise  in  arms, 
remained  quiescent,  and  even  showed  signs  of  loyalty ;  and 
some  of  the  most  Catholic  towns  of  Munster — their  governing 
bodies  were,  however,  Protestant — declared,  with  apparent 
enthusiasm,  for  the  existing  Government.  Too  much  is  not  to 
be  made  of  this :  the  Celts  of  Connaught  did  not  spare  the 
survivors  of  the  Armada  wrecked  on  their  shores,  though  their 
hearts  were  probably  in  the  Armada's  cause ;  but  the  fact 
remains,  and  it  is  very  significant. 

^  Traditions  of  the  incapacity  of  Grouchy  still  exist  at  Bantry. 


2/0  Irelaftd.  [Chap. 

The  failure  at  Bantry  did  not  change  the  purpose  of  the 
United  Irish   leaders;    but  it  made  them   cautious,  and  they 
resolved,  if  possible,  not  to  attempt  a  rising  before  the  French 
had  made  a  successful  landing.     Ulster,  nevertheless,  and  other 
parts  of  Ireland,  were  in  a  state  of  hardly  suppressed  rebellion, 
sustained  by  a  savage  war  of  classes,  throughout  nearly  the 
whole  of  1797.     A  United  Irish  Directory  had  been  formed  in 
Belfast,  enforcing  its  mandates  far  and  wide ;  an  insurrectionary 
army  was  held  in  the  leash,  drilled,  and  to  a  certain  extent, 
disciplined;  it  may  have  numbered,  on  paper,  100,000  men. 
Meanwhile,    regular    and    sometimes    successful    efforts   were 
made  to  seduce  the  troops  in  the  province,  and  the  militia, 
largely  Catholics,  from  their  allegiance ;  the  arm  of  justice  was 
often  paralysed  by  the  intimidation  of  juries  and  hideous  out- 
rages ;  in  short  a  kind  of  anarchic  government  acquired  despotic 
power  by  means  of  a  system  of  terror.     At  the  same  time  the 
feud  of  the  Orangemen  and  Defenders  grew  more  desperate ; 
an    ever-increasing  stream    of  Catholics  was    swept    into  the 
United    Irish   ranks ;   fresh   crowds    of  fugitives  were   driven 
southwards,  fleeing,  they  spread  abroad,  from  the  Protestant 
wrath  to  come.     Another  United  Irish  Directory  had  its  seat 
in  Dublin ;  some  of  its  leaders  were  able  men ;  but  their  chief 
trust   was    placed   in    Lord    Edward    Fitzgerald,   who  was    to 
command   the  armed  levies    of  the    South,  and  whose  great 
name  seemed  a  tower  of  strength.     These  levies,  it  was  said, 
numbered  200,000  men — an  estimate,  beyond  doubt,  excessive; 
but  tens  of  thousands  of  the  Catholic  peasantry  had  by  this  time 
become  United  Irishmen,  and  many  of  them  had  been  rudely 
armed  and  disciplined.     The  plan  of  the  conspirators  was  to 
seize  the  Castle  of  Dublin,  as  in  1641,  to  occupy  the  capital, 
and  to  make  the  men  in  power  prisoners ;  and  then  to  rise 
generally  throughout  the  country,  when  the  invasion  of  the 
French  had  been  made  certai"h.     In  the  interval  of  time  re- 
maining, fresh  efforts  were  made  to  exasperate  and  extend  the 


VIII.]  TJic  Rebellion  of  1798.  271 

agrarian  war;  maps  of  the  old  confiscated  lands  were  prepared; 
old  prophecies  that  the  Saxon  was  to  be  expelled  from  Ireland 
were  noised  abroad,  sometimes  by  the  lower  orders  of  priests ; 
the  peasantry  were  told  that  their  alien  masters  were  doomed. 
In  this  way  the  rebellious  and  the  agrarian  movements  became 
thoroughly  united  in  some  districts;  plantations  were  cut  down 
and  smithies  blazed  for  the  manufacture  of  a  formidable 
weapon,  the  pike;  and  the  organisation  of  the  Whiteboy 
system,  with  its  central  and  local  secret  societies,  was  set 
on  foot  to  promote  the  United  Irish  cause,  and  to  oppress, 
terrorise,  and  despoil  its  opponents.  This  combination,  how- 
ever, does  not  appear  to  have  been  complete  in  more  than 
a  few  counties ;  and  it  did  not  exist,  it  has  been  said,  in 
Connaught. 

This  state  of  things  in  Ireland  was  perilous  in  the  extreme ; 
affairs  in  Europe,  and  even  in  England,  increased  the  peril. 
Notwithstanding  the  failure  of  1796,  a  great  French  fleet  had 
assembled  at  Brest,  and  a  Dutch  fleet  was  at  anchor  near  the 
Texel,  in  order  to  renew  a  descent  on  Ireland — Tone  had 
indefatigably  pressed  on  the  enterprise ; — France  had  already 
nearly  mastered  the  Continent ;  the  very  naval  power  of  Great 
Britain  had  been  shaken,  especially  by  symptoms  of  disaffection 
in  the  fleet.  The  Irish  Government  was  perfectly  justified  in 
resolving  to  crush  out  rebellion  in  time ;  Clare,  its  master- 
spirit, deserves  credit  for  a  resolution  and  daring  worthy  of 
Strafford.  But  it  was  most  unfortunate  that  it  had  not  the 
support  of  a  regular  and  well  organised  military  force;  the 
army  in  Ireland  was  only  a  few  thousand  men ;  the  militia  had 
become  deeply  tainted ;  the  men  at  the  Castle  had  largely  to 
rely  on  the  yeomanry,  a  numerous  volunteer  levy,  raised  to  a 
great  extent  by  the  local  gentry,  and  mostly  Protestants  burning 
with  Orange  passions.  Under  these  circumstances,  it  was 
inevitable,  perhaps,  that,  when  an  effort  was  made  to  put 
down  a  rising,  horrible  excesses  should  take  place ;   unhappily 


272  Ireland.  [Chap. 

these  were  widespread  and  revolting.  Ulster  was  selected  as 
the  first  point  of  attack ;  the  leaders  of  the  conspiracy  were 
arrested;  the  incendiary  Press  was  scattered  to  the  winds;  a 
general  process  of  seizing  and  collecting  arms  was  enforced  in 
tlie  Province  without  scruple  or  mercy.  Houses  were  burned 
down  wholesale  to  compel  the  surrender  of  weapons;  bands  of 
yeomen  harried  the  Catholic  districts;  confessions  were  ex- 
torted by  atrocious  methods;  wherever  an  attempt  at  resistance 
was  made,  it  was  repressed  by  wild  and  relentless  cruelties. 
In  a  word  a  kind  of  savage  guerilla  warfare,  not  unlike  that  of 
the  Desmond  conflict,  and  aggravated  by  a  furious  strife  of 
race  and  creed,  raged  for  a  time  in  many  parts  of  Ulster ;  and 
hundreds  of  captives  were  hurried  off,  and  put  on  board  the 
fleet,  an  event  ominously  connected  with  the  Mutiny  at  the 
Nore.  The  head  of  the  rebellion  was  broken  by  these  means ; 
it  should  be  added  that,  ruthless  as  they  were,  these  deeds  had 
been  sanctioned  by  the  Irish  Parliament,  which,  indignant  and 
alarmed  at  a  state  of  affairs  in  which  the  Protestant  caste 
seemed  marked  out  for  destruction,  had  given  the  freest  scope 
to  severities  of  every  kind,  by  passing  laws  of  draconic  harsh- 
ness. The  Government,  after  a  pause  of  a  few  weeks,  turned 
against  the  conspiracy  in  the  capital;  it  must  be  borne  in  mind 
that  though  a  French  invasion  had  been  stopped  by  the  great 
fight  of  Camperdown,  the  warrior  of  Italy  was  at  this  very 
moment  on  the  French  coasts,  planning  a  descent  on  England. 
Spies  and  informers  had  kept  Camden,  Clare,  and  the  Council 
apprised  of  all  that  was  going  on ;  the  rebel  Directory  were 
made  prisoners ;  and  the  arrest  and  subsequent  death  of  Lord 
Edward  Fitzgerald  deprived  the  leaders  of  the  intended  rising 
of  a  head  in  whom  they  placed  extraordinary  trust,  though 
there  was  little  to  recommend  him  except  a  name,  still  a  spell 
of  power  among  the  peasantry  of  the  South  \ 

^  Of  the  influence  of  the  Geraldine  name  on  the  Irish  peasantry,  Davis 
has  finely  and  truly  written  : — 


VIII.]  The  Rebellion  of  1798.  273 

li  frightful  excesses  had  aheady  occurred,  the  Irish  Govern- 
ment, up  to  this  point  of  time,  recollecting  the  situation,  can 
be  hardly  blamed.  Thenceforward,  however,  it  must  be  gravely 
censured,  if  some  excuse  can  be  made  for  its  conduct.  The 
brain  of  the  conspiracy,  had,  so  to  speak  been  smitten ;  but 
the  paralysed  members  still  stirred  with  life ;  all  prospects  of  a 
rising  had  not  disappeared.  Fitzgibbon  knew  that  the  plan  of 
the  rebel  leaders  was  not  to  move  until  the  French  had  landed; 
he  seems,  like  Claverhouse,  to  have  deliberately  resolved  to 
force  insurrection  into  premature  being,  and  to  stifle  it  in 
blood  before  it  could  obtain  aid  from  abroad.  By  his  counsels 
more  than  by  those  of  any  other  personage,  the  system  of 
terror  which  had  succeeded  in  the  North,  was  carried  out  with 
infinitely  more  recklessness  and  severity  in  parts  of  the  southern 
provinces.  The  yeomanry  were  let  loose  like  banditti ;  villages 
were  burned  and  sacked  to  get  at  hidden  arms ;  the  Catholic 
peasantry  were  hunted  down  and  plundered ;  torture  was 
inflicted  on  hundreds  of  ill-fated  prisoners.  This  evil  policy, 
which,  be  it  observed,  was  denounced  by  Abercromby,  the 
commander-in-chief  of  the  regular  army,  and  a  true  soldier, 
had  the  result  expected  from  it.  It  became  impossible  to 
await  the  coming  of  the  French;  the  people  in  several  counties 
were  driven  into  revolt;  and  the  sanguinary  rebellion  of  1798 
broke  out  on  the  23rd  of  May  in  that  year. 

The   rising  was  confined  to    a   part   of  Leinster ;    it  was 
generally  feeble  and  ill-combined ;  it  became  formidable  in  a 

"True  Geraldines!   brave  Geraldines!    as  torrents  mould  the  Earth, 
You  channelled  deep  old  Ireland's  heart  by  constancy  and  worth; 
When  Ginkle  leaguered  Limerick,  the  Irish  soldiers  gazed, 
To  see,  if  in  the  setting  sun  dead  Desmond's  banner  blazed! 
And  still  it  is  the  peasant's  hope  upon  the  Cuirreach's  mere, 
They  live  who'll  see  ten  thousand  men,  with  good  Lord  Edward  here! 
So  let  them  dream  till  brighter  days,  when,  not  by  Edward's  shade, 
But  by  a  leader  true  as  he,  their  lines  shall  be  arrayed!" 

The  Spirit  of  the  Nation,  p.  10 1. 

M.  I.  18 


2/4  Ireland.  [Chap. 

nook  of  the  province  only.  An  attempt  to  attack  Dublin 
from  without,  connected  with  an  insurrection  within,  was  easily 
quelled  by  the  armed  force  on  the  spot,  and  by  the  energy  of 
the  Protestant  citizens ;  and  though  barbarous  deeds  of  blood 
were  done,  the  rebels  in  Kildare,  Carlow,  and  Meath  were 
quickly  subdued.  The  rising,  however,  was  universal  and 
fierce  in  the  two  beautiful  counties  of  Wicklow  and  Wexford, 
the  fairest  part  of  the  south-eastern  tract  of  Ireland.  In  this 
prosperous  region,  the  strife  between  the  Orangemen  and 
Defenders  had  raged  for  some  months ;  and  the  efforts  of  the 
Government  to  bring  rebellion  to  a  head  had  been  marked 
with  peculiar  cruelties.  The  conflict  from  the  first  was  a 
savage  war  of  religion;  it  was  also  to  some  extent  a  struggle  of 
race ;  but,  in  this  instance,  the  double  lines  of  distinction  in 
Ireland  did  not  coincide ;  the  rebels  were  for  the  most  part,  of 
Anglo-Norman  or  English  descent ;  it  was  a  war  of  armed 
Protestants,  backed  by  a  military  force,  waged  with  a  Catholic 
peasantry,  half  maddened  by  wrong.  For  nearly  a  month  the 
issue  of  the  contest  was  very  doubtful;  it  assumed  a  terrible 
and  hideous  aspect ;  it  is  impossible  to  adjust  the  balance  of 
evil  deeds  done  on  either  side, — the  loyalists  especially  dis- 
graced themselves  by  outrages  on  women  to  an  appalling 
extent.  The  horrors  of  the  scenes  that  were  witnessed  are 
relieved  by  the  proofs  of  devoted  courage  that  were  shown  : 
the  Protestants  fought  with  the  reckless  pride  characteristic  of 
a  dominant  race ;  the  Catholics  exhibited  heroic  daring,  at 
Vinegar  Hill,  Oulart,  and  New  Ross ;  the  fowling-piece  and 
the  long  pike  had  great  effect  in  brave  and  resolute  hands : 
and  one  of  the  rebel  leaders — these  were  often  priests — 
displayed  a  capacity  worthy  of  a  born  general.  After  many 
efforts  the  rising  was  at  last  quenched  in  ashes  and  blood ;  but 
the  rebels  had  occupied  the  town  of  Wexford  for  a  time ;  and 
had  the  march  of  the  Catholics  on  Arklow  proved  successful, 
the  capital  would  have  been  in  the  gravest  danger. 


VIII.]  The  Rebellion  of  1798.  275 

The  rebellion  scarcely  made  a  sign  in  Connaught ;  it 
appeared  in  Minister  in  only  a  few  weak  gatherings.  Ulster, 
where  the  conspiracy  had  been  most  deeply  laid,  did  not  stir 
during  the  war  in  the  South-East ;  the  causes  of  this  deserve 
passing  notice.  The  preparations  for  a  rising  had  been  already 
prevented;  the  Presbyterians  waited  the  advent  of  the  French; 
they  resented  too,  a  quarrel  between  France  and  the  United 
States.  But  the  most  effective  cause  of  their  inaction  was  this: 
the  struggle  in  Wicklow  and  Wexford  was  one  of  religions; 
and  the  United  Irishmen  of  Ulster  stood  aloof  from  a  purely 
Protestant  and  Catholic  conflict,  which  ran  counter  to  their 
hopes  and  sympathies.  The  rebellion  of  1798  was  almost 
v/holly  fought  out  by  Irishmen ;  it  had  nearly  ceased  when 
troops  poured  in  from  England ;  it  called  out  high  Irish 
qualities,  if  it  was  full  of  horrors.  By  this  time  Camden  had 
been  replaced  by  CornwaUis,  a  capable  and  humane  soldier; 
but  a  kind  of  guerilla  struggle  lingered  for  a  few  months 
among  the  valleys  and  hills  of  Wicklow,  the  fastness  of  the 
Celtic  mountaineers  of  old.  A  short  period  like  a  White 
Terror  followed,  marked  by  the  passions  of  a  dominant  race 
let  loose  against  one  alike  subject  and  despised;  and  many 
disgraceful  deeds  were  certainly  done.  These  atrocities  how- 
ever were  rather  the  work  of  officials  of  the  Castle,  of  the 
yeomanry  and  their  chiefs,  and  of  Protestant  bigots  of  the 
middle  and  lower  classes,  than  of  the  landed  gentry,  of  any 
degree;  hundreds  of  these,  even  in  Ulster,  condemned  what 
Avas  going  on ;  and  CornwaUis  was  in  error  when  he  involved 
all  the  loyalists  of  Ireland  in  a  common  censure.  Nevertheless 
the  state  of  Ireland  was  lamentable  after  the  close  of  1798;  it 
left  a  legacy  of  blighted  hopes  and  most  evil  memories.  It 
was  not  only  that  fair  parts  of  the  country  had  been  ravaged 
by  a  barbarous  strife;  the  material  was  as  nothing  to  the 
moral  ruin.  The  influences  that  had,  for  many  years,  seemed 
to  lessen  the  differences  of  blood  and  faith,  and  even  to  have 

18—2 


276  Ireland.  [Chap. 

healed  many  wounds  of  the  past,  had  disappeared  in  an 
inhuman  struggle;  the  old  distinctions  had  come  out,  deeply 
marked  as  ever;  the  conflict,  if  not  wholly,  had  been  in  the 
main  a  war  of  race,  and  above  all  of  religion.  The  visions  of 
the  United  Irishmen  had  sunk  in  a  sea  of  blood ;  the  ideal  of 
Grattan  had  proved  impossible ;  the  aspirations  of  a  new  era 
had  been  as  idle  as  the  French  dreams  of  1789.  The  ruHng 
orders  of  Ireland  had  been  made  revengeful;  the  classes 
beneath  them  had  beheld  the  prospect  of  enlarged  liberties 
suddenly  withdrawn ;  the  lines  of  demarcation  between  the 
owners  and  occupiers  of  the  soil,  and  between  CathoUc  and 
Protestant  had  been  greatly  widened.  This  change  for  the 
worse,  which  put  the  whole  country  back,  was  very  marked  in 
the  Irish  Parliament ;  it  had  become  a  mere  court  to  register 
what  the  Castle  and  Clare  ordered ;  the  independent  party  in 
it  had  dwindled  almost  to  nothing;  and  Grattan  and  his 
followers,  indignant  at  recent  events,  unable  to  check  the 
course  of  the  Government,  and  saddened  at  the  failure  of  the 
hopes  of  1782,  had  seceded  from  it  in  anger  and  despair. 
Long  before  this  time  they  had  made  a  last  fruitless  effort 
in  the  cause  of  Catholic  emancipation  and  Parliamentary 
Reform. 

Before  the  rebellion  had  finally  collapsed,  a  French  squad- 
ron, and  a  few  hundred  men,  had  landed  near  Killala,  on  the 
coast  of  Mayo.  Napoleon  had  taken  the  main  fleet  of  France 
to  the  East,  where  it  perished  in  the  great  fight  of  the  Nile ; 
b.2.<^o  he  had  no  taste  for  rebellion,  Irish  or  other;  the  French 
Directory  sent  only  an  insignificant  force  to  the  shores  of 
Ireland.  Its  leader  Humbert,  however,  was  a  brilliant  soldier ; 
he  routed  a  body  of  militia,  three-fold  in  numbers,  in  a  combat 
known  as  the  "  Race  of  Castlebar  " ;  he  gave  Cornwallis  much 
to  do  before  he  was  compelled  to  surrender.  Another  petty 
French  descent  was  remarkable  only  for  the  capture  of  Wolfe 
Tone,  after  a  sharp  engagement;  the  unfortunate  chief  of  the 


viii.]  The  Union.  277 

United  Irish  movement — he  had  served  in  the  expedition  to 
Bantry,  and  had  witnessed  the  disaster  of  Camperdown — was 
doomed  to  the  ignominous  death  of  a  felon,  though  he  held 
the  commission  of  a  French  general ;  he  only  averted  his  fate 
by  suicide.  Tone  was  infinitely  the  first  of  the  rebel  leaders ; 
he  had  capacity,  resource,  true  faith  in  his  cause,  and  patrio- 
tism, distempered  but  sincere  \  his  figure  will  live  in  Irish 
History.  After  a  few  severe  examples  had  been  made,  the 
conspirators,  who  had  fallen  into  the  hands  of  the  Irish  Govern- 
ment, were  amnestied,  under  not  unfair  conditions ;  their  lives 
were  spared,  but  they  had  to  leave  the  country.  They  were, 
none  of  them,  men  of  marked  powers :  but  some  won  honour 
in  foreign  lands ;  two  or  three  gallantly  followed  Napoleon's 
eagles;  more  than  one  made  a  name  for  himself  in  America. 
Much  in  their  conduct  is  to  be  sternly  condemned ;  yet,  at  this 
distance  of  time,  it  deserves  a  kind  of  sympathy.  They  had  at 
first  only  Constitutional  reforms  in  view ;  they  were  drawn  into 
rebeUion  and  its  evil  courses,  in  part  by  the  revolutionary 
ideas  of  France,  but  in  part  by  the  misdeeds  of  the  Irish 
government.  And  if  they  were  guilty  of  the  unhappy  attempt 
of  connecting  rebellion  with  an  agrarian  rising,  and  of  hounding 
on  an  ignorant  peasantry  against  their  superiors,  we  must  bear 
in  mind  that  Ireland  had  genuine  wrongs  at  this  time :  that 
they  had  a  lofty,  if  a  mistaken  ideal;  that  they  staked  their 
lives  on  the  cause  they  upheld  ;  that  they  did  not  appeal  to  the 
base  passion  of  greed  only ;  that  they  were  not  subsidised  by 
incendiaries  of  blood ;  that,  when  all  was  lost,  they  did  not 
turn  against  each  other,  in  Ireland  at  least,  and  sully  the  name 
of  Irishmen  \ 

The  rebellion  of  1798  had  only  just  ended,  when  Pitt  began 
to  lay  grounds  for  the  Union.  The  contest  had  been  tardily 
put  down ;    reinforcements  from  England  had  come  in  late ; 

^  For  a  favourable  view  of  the  United  Irish  leaders,  see  the  fine  ballad, 
"Who  fears  to  speak  of  Ninety-Eight."     The  Spirit  of  the  Nation,  p.  41. 


2/8  Ireland.  [Chap. 

but  we  may  summarily  reject  the  wicked  myths — evil  phantoms 
rising  from  a  field  of  carnage — that  Pitt  fomented  a  rising  in 
arms,  and  let  Irish  factions  tear  each  other  to  pieces,  in  order 
to  promote  a  measure  he  had  at  heart.     The  Union  of  Great 
Britain  and  Ireland  had  not  only  been  projected,  we  have  said, 
by  many  able  thinkers ;  it  had  been  in  the  minds  of  several 
English  statesmen,  ever  since  the  Revolution  of  1782.     Apart, 
however,  from  faults,  on  which  we  shall  say  a  word  hereafter, 
Pitt,    it   is    evident   from    his    letters    and   speeches,    did   not 
thoroughly  comprehend  the  whole  reasons  that  made  a  Union 
a  necessity  of  State  at  this  time,  or  perceive  the  consequences 
that  might  flow  from  it.     He  saw,  as  the  Regency  Question 
had  made  manifest,  that  the  two  Legislatures  might  danger- 
ously clash ;  he  saw,  too,  the  danger  of  this  at  a  period  of  war, 
though,  in  England's  struggle  with  Revolutionary  France,  the 
Irish  Parliament  had  given  him  most  cordial  support.     He  saw, 
also,  that  probably  the  best  means  to  secure  the  Established 
Church  in  Ireland,  to  keep  the  land  in  Protestant  hands,  in  a 
word  to  maintain  what  he  called  "  the  Protestant  Settlement," 
was  to  make  Ireland  one  with  Great  Britain ;  nor  was  he  blind 
to  the  possible  evils  of  the  existing  state  of  Catliolic  Ireland. 
But,  though  he  was  not  insensible  to  them,  he  did  not  com- 
pletely grasp  the  truths  that,  after  the  horrors  of  1798,  the 
only  hope  for  Ireland,  torn  as  she  had  been  by  a  barbarous 
strife  of  race  and  faith,  was  to  bring  her  under  the  control  of 
an  Imperial  Parliament ;  and  that  the  only  wise  policy  for  a 
British  Minister,  was,  with  the  aid  of  a  strong  and  just  govern- 
ment, to  place  Catholic  and  Protestant,  Saxon  and  Celt  on  an 
equal  level  of  civil  and  religious  rights.     This  justification  of 
the  Union  he  did  not  fully  realise,   at  least  he  did  not  act 
boldly  as  if  he  did ;  and  we  may  smile  at  his  notions  that  the 
introduction    of  Irish    members   into  the   United  Parliament 
might  largely  increase   the  power  of  the  Crown,  and  that  a 
Union  would  cause  Irish  faction  quickly  to  cease.      Pitt,   in 


VIII.]  The   Union.  279 

fact,  as  we  have  before  remarked,  was  ignorant  of  the  true 
state  of  Ireland,  Hke  most  British  statesmen^;  and  in  the  case 
of  Ireland  as  in  that  of  France  in  1792-3,  he  had  not  the 
genius  to  perceive  what  was  beyond  his  immediate  ken. 

It  was  the  wish  of  Pitt  to  combine  the  Union  with  the 
emancipation  of  the  Irish  Catholics,  and  with  measures  to 
provide  funds  for  the  support  of  the  Catholic  Irish  priesthood, 
and  for  the  commutation  of  the  tithes  of  the  Established 
Church;  he  had  seen,  we  have  said,  the  bad  effects  of  this 
impost.  This  policy  was  in  the  right  direction  ;  but  it  was  not 
original,  as  has  been  alleged ;  the  Irish  Parliament  would  have 
conceded  the  Catholic  claims  in  1795;  the  payment  of  the 
priests  was  an  old  idea,  and  had  been  advocated  by  Irish 
writers  and  statesmen ;  the  commutation  of  the  tithe  was  a 
favourite  plan  of  Grattan.  Pitt,  however,  did  not  persist  in 
the  project,  which  he  had  hoped  to  make  an  essential  part  of 
the  Union ;  he  yielded  to  the  counsels  of  Clare,  greatly  trusted 
by  him  in  Irish  affairs,  and  consented  to  deprive  his  measure 
of  its  best  features  ;  he  knew,  too,  at  this  time,  that  George  III 
was  obstinately  opposed  to  the  demands  of  the  Catholics. 
This  was  the  first  of  his  grave  mistakes  on  the  subject :  it  is 
the  more  to  be  blamed  because  Cornwallis,  able  to  gauge  Irish 
opinion  on  the  spot,  always  insisted  that  the  Union  could  not 
succeed,  if  Catholic  Emancipation  was  not  made,  so  to  speak, 
its  gift.  Means  were  taken,  towards  the  close  of  1798,  to 
ascertain  the  judgment  of  Irishmen  on  the  question ;  a  few 
of  the  great  borough-mongering  Peers  agreed  to  support  the 
scheme,  should  it  serve  their  interests  ;  a  number  of  members 

^  We  have  seen  what  Swift  thought  on  this  subject.  Burke  wrote 
thus: — "The  fashion  relative  to  Ireland  is  the  wish  that  they  should  hear 
of  it,  and  its  concerns,  as  little  as  possible."  Grattan  expressed  himself  in 
these  words : — "Ireland  is  a  subject  the  Cabinet  considers  with  a  lazy  con- 
tumely, and  picks  up  here  and  there,  by  accident  or  design,  interested  or 
erroneous  intelligence."     This  may  be  read  with  profit  at  this  hour. 


28o  Ireland.  [Chap. 

of  the  Irish  Houses  were  ready  to  obey  the  Minister  on  the 
usual  terms ;  some  of  the  independent  landed  gentry,  alarmed 
at  the  events  of  1798,  beheld,  in  a  Union,  safety  for  themselves; 
the  leading  men  of  Catholic  Ireland,  much  as  they  had 
resented  Fitzwilliam's  recall,  were  not  unwilling  to  consider 
the  subject.  But  an  immense  majority  of  the  Irish  Protestants, 
the  trading  classes  of  Dublin,  almost  to  a  man,  and  nine  tenths, 
git  least,  of  the  Irish  Bar,  were  indignant  at  the  very  thought  of 
a  Union,  and  expressed  their  sentiments  in  emphatic  language: 
this  is  the  more  remarkable  because  the  country  was  held  down 
by  a  British  armed  force,  and  the  views  of  the  British  Ministry 
was  perfectly  well  known.  In  these  circumstances,  Robert 
Stewart,  Lord  Castlereagh,  the  Chief  Secretary  of  Cornwallis, 
announced,  somewhat  vaguely,  the  policy  of  Pitt,  in  the  Irish 
House  of  Commons,  in  a  speech  on  the  address,  made  in 
January  1799;  but  an  amendment  was  rejected  by  one  vote 
only ;  and  as  this  was  plainly  equivalent  to  a  defeat,  the 
measure  was  permitted  to  drop  for  a  time*. 

Though  the  Government  had  been  bafiled  in  the  Irish 
Lower  House,  it  obtained  a  large  majority  in  the  Irish  House 
of  Lords,  where  the  influence  of  Clare  was  easily  supreme. 
The  British  Parliament  had,  about  the  same  time,  passed 
Resolutions  in  favour  of  the  Union,  by  an  overwhelming 
superiority  of  votes ;  and  Pitt  insisted  that  the  measure  should 
be  carried  out  in  Ireland.  But  it  was  far  from  easy  to  give  his 
purpose  effect ;  and  means  were  adopted,  the  exact  nature  of 
which  has  been  matter  of  controversy  ever  since,  but  of  which 
the  general  character  is  not  doubtful.  The  Irish  Parliament 
had  long  been  swayed  by  corrupt  influence;  this  had  probably 
increased  since  1782;  it  had  been  openly  exercised  on  the 
Regency  Question ;  and  it  was  resolved,  in  Castlereagh's 
cynical  phrase,  to  "  buy  up  the  fee-simple  of  Irish  corruption," 

^  In  a  debate  on  the  report  to  the  Address  the  Government  was  defeated 

by  5  votes. 


VIII.]  The  Union.  281 

by  an  accelerated  purchase  made  once  for  all,  and  to  secure  a 
majority  for  a  Union  in  the  Irish  Houses,  by  largely  extending 
the  processes  which  had  long  been  in  use.  Direct  bribery 
was  not  employed ;  but  promises  of  peerages  were  lavishly 
scattered ;  places  were  created  and  places  unscrupulously 
filled,  in  order  to  obtain  support  for  the  scheme ;  officials  were 
threatened  with  dismissal  if  they  did  not  vote  for  the  Govern- 
ment ;  appeals  were  persistently  made  to  the  hopes  and  the 
fears  of  the  members  in  both  parts  of  the  Irish  Parliament. 
Simultaneously  pledges  were  given  that  immense  sums  were  to 
be  paid  to  the  patrons  and  the  proprietors  of  the  numerous 
boroughs  to  be  disfranchised ;  and  one  of  the  reforms  effected 
in  1793,  by  which  placemen  in  the  House  of  Commons  were 
compelled  to  vacate  their  seats,  was  twisted  into  a  method  to 
secure  a  majority.  By  these  expedients,  regarded  by  Corn- 
wallis  with  disgust,  but  employed  by  his  Chief  Secretary  with 
unflinching  boldness,  the  Irish  Parliament  was  packed  to  vote 
for  a  Union ;  but  it  is  only  just  to  add  that,  from  the  first, 
many  of  its  members — and  the  number  certainly  tended  to 
increase — conscientiously  approved  of  Pitt's  policy.  Recourse, 
too,  was  had  to  other  means,  to  influence  Irish  opinion  outside 
the  Parliament  in  behalf  of  the  contemplated  measure.  Able 
pamphlets  were  published,  and  a  Press  subsidised ;  Cornwallis 
went  on  progress  through  different  counties,  to  canvass,  so  to 
speak,  for  the  Union ;  and  many  favourable  addresses  were 
obtained,  though  these  were  of  a  questionable  kind,  and  the 
adverse  petitions  were  much  more  numerous.  The  Irish 
Government,  however,  chiefly  directed  its  efforts  to  enlist 
Catholic  Ireland  on  its  side ;  and  incidents  occurred,  even  yet 
obscure,  that  form  an  unhappy  passage  in  Irish  History.  Pitt 
had  informed  Cornwallis  that  the  Union  was  to  be  a  "  Pro- 
testant Union,"  in  the  phrase  of  the  time ;  he  told  the  Lord 
Lieutenant,  very  plainly,  that  Catholic  Emancipation  was  to  be 
no  part  of  the  measure.     But  his  own  speeches  in  the  British 


282  Ireland.  [Chap. 

House  of  Commons  implied  that  he  approved  of  the  Catholic 
claims,  and  that  they  might  be  conceded  when  the  Union  had 
become  law^  he  certainly  encouraged  Cornwallis,  and  gave 
him  power  to  bid  openly  for  Catholic  support ;  he  perhaps 
authorised  Cornwallis  to  assure  the  Irish  Catholic  leaders  that 
their  cause  was  his  own.  That  upright  but  not  very  astute 
nobleman,  always  the  earnest  champion  of  the  Irish  Catholics, 
placed  his  own  interpretation  on  Pitt's  hints  and  words :  he 
had  many  conferences  with  the  Heads  of  Catholic  Ireland,  and 
entreated  them  to  use  their  influence  to  promote  the  Union ; 
he  unquestionably  held  out  hopes,  if  he  did  not  make  promises; 
he  left  them  under  the  impression  that  their  Emancipation  was 
certain  and  at  hand.  It  should  be  added  that,  before  this 
time,  Cornwallis  had  been  negotiating  with  the  Irish  Catholic 
Bishops,  with  reference  to  a  provision  for  the  priesthood ;  Pitt 
seems  to  have  been  not  aware  of  this ;  but  the  fact  is,  not  the 
less,  of  extreme  significance.  The  brond  result  was  that  the 
Catholic  leaders  generally  threw  in  their  lot  with  the  Union, 
and  drew  the  Catholic  masses  with  them ;  Catholic  Ireland, 
in  the  main,  declared  for  the  measure ;  and  this,  Pitt  and 
Cornwallis  agreed,  was  of  supreme  importance.  A  small 
minority,  however,  of  the  Irish  Catholics,  with  more  insight, 
and  perhaps  with  more  ambitious  views,  protested  vehemently 
against  the  proposed  scheme ;  among  these  was  Daniel  O'Con- 
nell,  a  young  lawyer,  just  beginning  his  career. 

The  devices  employed  to  bring  about  the  Union  made 
their  effects  apparent  in  the  Irish  Parliament,  when  it  assembled 
again  in  January  1800.  An  amendment  to  the  Address,  by 
which  it  was  sought  to  stop  the  progress  of  the  measure,  was 
rejected ;  the  Question  was  introduced,  a  few  days  afterwards, 
by  a  message  from  the  Viceroy  sending  to  bodi  Houses  the 
Resolutions  voted  by  the  British  Parliament,  and  recom- 
mending the  policy  sanctioned  by  it.  The  debates  on  the 
subject,  arising  in  difterent  ways,  were  impassioned,  and  took 


VIII.]  The  Union.  283 

up  much  time ;  but  they  are  marked  by  abiHty  of  a  very 
high  order.  Castlereagh  advocated  the  sclieme,  with  calm 
power  and  thoroughness ;  Clare,  in  a  speech  of  real  insight 
and  force,  insisted,  that  in  a  Union  lay  the  only  hope  of 
Property,  of  Law,  and  of  the  Established  Church,  in  Ireland. 
A  fine  array  of  eloquence  was  marshalled  on  the  other  side ; 
the  Bar  engaged  its  most  brilliant  ornaments,  Saurin,  Plunket, 
Bushe,  and  other  eminent  worthies ;  the  Speaker  Foster  rose 
to  the  height  of  a  great  argument,  in  a  most  weighty  and 
thoughtful  harangue.  But  Grattan  towered  above  all  his  fellows 
— he  had  lately  returned  to  the  House  of  Commons — in 
language  of  singular  beauty  and  pathos,  accompanied  by 
solemn  and  prophetic  warnings,  he  advised  the  Parliament 
not  to  destroy  itself,  and  to  preserve  its  existence  for  the  Irish 
"nation."  All  opposition,  however,  proved  vain;  the  Govern- 
ment retained  the  majority  it  had  procured ;  Resolutions, 
passed  by  the  Irish  Parliament,  in  favour  of  a  Union,  were 
translated  into  Articles  and  Bills ;  and  the  measure  of  Pitt 
received  the  sanction  of  both  the  Irish  and  the  British  Parlia- 
ments. It  deserves  notice  that  a  proposal  to  refer  the  decision 
of  the  question  to  the  Irish  electorate  was  angrily  resented  by 
Pitt  and  Castlereagh ;  the  voice  even  of  Protestant  Ireland, 
though  that  of  a  minority  of  the  Irish  people,  and  of  a  minority 
in  the  main  loyal,  was  not  allowed  to  pronounce  on  this 
matter'.  It  is  certain  however,  that,  in  its  later  stages  at 
least,  the  measure  did  not  provoke  widespread  discontent; 
there  was  no  passionate  outburst  of  opinion  against  it.  Dublin 
and  the  Irish  Bar,  indeed,  remained  bitterly  hostile ;  but  there 
was  little  murmuring  in  the  country  districts ;  the  mass  of 
Catholic  Ireland  did  not  stir ;  its  leaders  looked  forward  with 
anxious  hope;  the  trading  classes  were  induced  to  expect  that 
the    Union    would   bring   them    large   benefits;    Presbyterian 

^  The  Catholic  Irish  multitude,  however,  it  must  be  borne  in  mind,  had 
possessed  the  sufiVage  since  1793- 


2  84  Ireland.  [Chap. 

Ireland  seems  to  have  thought  that  its  favourite  Hnen  manu- 
facture would  make  great  progress.  The  attitude  of  the 
majority  of  the  people  was  one  of  apathy ;  it  was  felt  that  a 
measure,  backed  by  the  British  Parliament  and  the  British 
army,  could  not  be  withstood ;  but  unquestionably  a  minority, 
growing  in  strength,  inclined  very  decidedly  towards  a  Union. 

The  Union  was  accomplished  by  evil  means ;  nor  was  it 
a  well  conceived  measure,  even  within  the  narrow  limits  traced 
out  by  Pitt.  The  Irish  and  British  Legislatures  were  merely 
combined,  and  emerged  in  a  single  Imperial  Parliament; 
Ireland  retained  the  Viceroy,  a  separate  Government,  a  sepa- 
rate Administration,  separate  Courts  of  Justice,  even  separate 
Exchequers  for  a  considerable  time.  The  shadow  of  an 
independent  State  was  suffered  to  exist ;  as  Foster  truly 
predicted,  an  occasion  was  offered  to  demands  to  give  the 
shadow  substance ;  the  consequences  have  not  proved  to  be 
fortunate.  The  worst  feature,  however,  of  the  Union  was  this  : 
what  should  have  been  its  most  vital  part  was  not  found  in  it ; 
CathoHc  Emancipation,  a  provision  for  the  priests,  even  the 
commutation  of  the  tithe  were  left  out ;  Catholic  Ireland  was 
still  deprived  of  legitimate  rights.  The  remaining  portions  of 
the  scheme  were  of  less  importance,  and  do  not  deserve  peculiar 
attention.  The  maintenance  of  the  Established  Church  was 
made  a  solemn  and  fundamental  law;  with  what  results  time 
was  to  show  in  its  fulness ;  the  settlement  of  the  Land  was 
left,  of  course,  as  it  was ;  but  undoubtedly  the  hope  of  pre- 
serving this  had  weight  with  numbers  of  the  landed  gentry, 
alarmed  at  the  threats,  uttered  in  1798,  to  undo  the  confis- 
cations of  the  past.  The  fiscal  arrangements  were  harsh  to 
Ireland;  she  was  to  contribute  two  seventeenths  to  the 
Imperial  expenditure,  a  proportion  certainly  in  excess ;  her 
trade  was  somewhat  further  enlarged,  and  ultimately  was  to  be 
completely  free ;  but  the  commercial  benefits,  which,  Castle- 
reagh    declared,    would    follow    the    Union,    have    not    been 


VIII.]  The  Union.  285 

realised.  The  Irish  Peers  lost  their  seats  in  the  Irish  House 
of  Lords;  a  small  body  of  the  order  have  ever  since  been 
chosen  to  represent  them  in  the  Imperial  ParHament ;  the  300 
members  of  the  Irish  House  of  Commons  were  reduced  to  100 
in  the  Imperial  House,  a  number  that  ought  to  have  been 
adequate  to  make  the  will  of  Ireland  sufficiently  felt.  For  the 
rest,  while  much  that  the  Union  should  have  contained 
was  unhappily  not  comprised  in  it,  much  that  was  discredit- 
able, in  its  incidents,  was  faithfully  carried  out;  the  borough- 
mongering  nobles  and  commoners  were  gorged  with  the  spoil 
that  had  been  promised ;  and  the  pledges  of  corruption  were 
duly  fulfilled. 

Pitt  was  a  large  minded  and  enlightened  statesman;  he 
certainly  desired,  when  the  Union  was  secure,  to  carry  out  the 
measures  of  relief  for  the  Irish  Catholics  which,  from  the 
outset,  he  had  had  in  view.  He  probably  reckoned  on  his 
prodigious  influence;  but  he  had  unhappily  kept  the  king  in 
the  dark,  though  fully  aware  of  the  king's  sentiments ;  a 
ministerial  cabal  was  formed  against  him ;  and  George  III,  on 
a  preposterous  plea,  pressed  with  the  obstinacy  of  a  dis- 
tempered mind,  peremptorily  refused  to  listen  to  the  Catholic 
claims.  The  subsequent  conduct  of  Pitt  in  this  matter  has 
indisputably  thrown  a  shadow  on  his  name.  He  resigned  his 
office,  when  he  had  persuaded  himself  that  he  could  not  carry 
out  his  Irish  Catholic  policy;  he  is  entitled  to  every  credit 
attaching  to  the  act.  But  in  a  very  short  time  he  let  his 
master  know  that  he  would  not  urge  the  question  again;  he 
supported  a  violent  Anti-Catholic  Ministry ;  he  returned  to 
office,  but  took  no  steps  to  vindicate  the  demands  of  Catholic 
Ireland.  All  this  has  exposed  his  memory  to  grave  suspicion ; 
and  History  can  hardly  withhold  its  censure.  It  is  idle  to  say 
that  he  told  Cornwallis  that  the  Union  was  to  be  a  Protestant 
one  only :  he  held  out  hopes  himself  to  the  Irish  Catholics ; 
he  invited  Cornwallis  to  do  the  same;  he  carried  the  Union, 


286  Ireland.  [Chap. 

to  some  extent  at  least,  by  obtaining  Irish  Catholic  suppoit, 
secured  only  by  what  were  deemed  promises,  tliat  Catholic 
relief  would  certainly  follow.  In  these  circumstances,  it  was 
not  enougli  to  have  simply  abandoned  the  helm ;  he  ought  to 
have  insisted  on  the  king's  adopting  his  measures,  and  had  he 
done  so,  he  must  have  attained  his  object  j  and  his  subsequent 
attitude  has  a  look  of  insincerity  if  not  worse.  We  fear  it  must 
be  said  that,  in  his  wish  to  accomplish  the  Union,  he  did  not 
scruple  to  allow  the  Irish  Catholics  to  entertain  hopes  which, 
he  well  knew,  might  not  be  fulfilled ;  that  he  all  but  pledged 
himself  to  them,  through  his  Lord  Lieutenant,  though  he  felt 
he  might  not  be  able  to  redeem  the  pledge ;  and  that  he 
thought  his  conscience  absolved  by  a  resignation,  which  he 
took  care  should  not  last  long,  without  even  trying  to  give 
effect  to  a  policy,  to  which  he  stood  committed  as  a  man  and 
a  minister.  The  best  excuses  perhaps  to  be  made  for  him  are 
that,  in  his  ignorance  of  Ireland  and  her  real  state,  he  did  not 
understand  all  that  was  involved  in  the  course  he  took,  and 
that,  in  the  death  struggle  of  1804-5,  he  believed  it  was  his 
duty  to  become  the  Head  of  the  State,  without  regard  to 
consistency,  or  too  fine  a  sense  of  honour.  A  most  un- 
fortunate fact,  nevertheless,  remained :  by  one  of  those 
accidents  so  frequent  in  Irish  History,  Catholic  Ireland  was 
again  deceived;  what  was  done  had  only  too  much  in  common 
with  Strafford's  "  Graces,"  and  the  broken  Treaty  of  Limerick. 

Under  the  Constitution  of  1782  Ireland  unquestionably 
made  social  and  material  progress ;  the  ancient  divisions 
01  blood  and  creed,  which  for  centuries  have  kept  her  races 
apart,  and  her  feuds  of  class  had,  to  some  extent,  disappeared. 
In  these  circumstances  it  was  not  impossible,  though,  in  our 
judgment,  it  was  not  probable,  that  Grattan's  ideal  might  have 
been  realised,  that  Ireland  might  have  become  "  a  nation," 
with  a  free  Parliament  and  a  powerful  landed  gentry,  the 
respected  superiors  of  a  contented  peasantry.     But  the  French 


VIII.]  The  Union.  287 

Revolution  scattered  these  hoi)es  to  the  winds ;  its  destructive 
influence  was  as  fatal,  perhaps,  in  Ireland  as  in  any  part  of 
Europe ;  it  blighted  the  fair  promise  of  the  close  of  the 
eighteenth  century.  We  must  add,  too,  that  having  regard  to 
the  relations  it  created  between  Great  Britain  and  Ireland,  the 
Constitution  of  1782  was  not  likely  to  endure;  it  was  hardly 
compatible  with  the  security  of  the  British  Empire ;  it  was  an 
anachronism  distrusted  by  British  statesmen.  Be  this  as  it 
may,  the  French  Revolution,  searching  Irish  institutions  to  the 
very  core,  proved  how  ill-ordered  and  dangerous  they  were  \ 
society  in  Ireland  was  seen  to  be  deeply  diseased,  and  divided 
by  distinctions  only  hidden  for  a  time ;  and  errors  of  policy 
and  faults  of  the  British  and  Irish  Governments  prevented 
reforms  which  might,  conceivably,  have  averted  the  disastrous 
events  that  followed.  Rebellion,  however,  began  to  lift  its 
head;  a  revolutionary  movement  to  combine  Irishmen  in  a 
league  against  England,  the  common  enemy,  and  to  stir  up 
anarchical  strife,  was  crossed  and  baffled  by  another  movement, 
characteristic  of  the  hatreds  of  the  past;  and  the  end  was  a 
horrible  war  of  race  and  religion.  For  much  that  was  done  in 
1798,  Clare  and  the  men  at  the  Castle  are  to  be  severely 
blamed;  but  their  position,  we  must  recollect,  was  difficult  in 
the  extreme ;  and  if  they  forced  civil  war  to  come  to  a  head, 
they  certainly  prevented  a  worse  catastrophe.  As  affairs  stood 
when  the  rebellion  had  ended,  a  Union  had  become  a  neces- 
sity of  State,  in  the  interest  of  Ireland  and  of  Great  Britain 
alike;  but  Pitt  managed  the  settlement  badly;  and  the  Union 
was  an  ill-designed  measure,  carried  by  sinister  means  through 
the  Irish  Parliament,  and  accompanied  by  an  act  of  wrong  to 
Catholic  Ireland,  of  which  the  results  are  felt  to  this  hour. 
Still  Pitt  must  not  be  too  harshly  judged ;  in  the  existing  state 
of  the  world  he  was  bound  to  accomplish  a  Union  at  almost 
any  risk  and  cost. 

Ireland  entered  into  a  Union  with  England  under  unhappy 


288  Ireland.  [Chap.  viii. 

conditions,  and  at  an  inauspicious  time.    The  Catholic  question 
was  one  of  pressing  importance,  and  if  unsettled,  certain  to  cause 
trouble ;   the  country  required  other  reforms,  the  necessity  of 
which  had  begun  to  be  seen  by  some  of  the  best  men  in  the 
Irish  Parliament.     Ireland  was   in  want  of  a  strong  bat  pro- 
gressive government ;    but  she   had  been    united  with    Great 
Britain  at  the  very  time  when  the  conflict  with  France  was  soon 
to  become  one  of  life  and  death;  when  all  hopes  of  changes  in 
the  State  seemed  gone ;  when  reactionary  ideas  had  immense 
force;    when  unbending  Toryism  was  supreme,  nay  absolute. 
And  the  reforms  she  needed  were,  in  some  instances,  in  direct 
conflict  with  British  prejudice,  in  others  were  little  understood 
by    British   statesmen ;    and    Ireland   was    to    be   ruled   by  a 
Parliament  that  knew  her  not,  and  by  politicians  well  meaning, 
indeed,  but  often  ill-informed  and  without  sympathy ;  it  being 
doubtful,  too,  at  least,  if  in  the  peculiar  state  of  her  representa- 
tion, she  would  possess  sufficient  influence  of  her  own.     The 
prosperity  of  Ireland,   too,  had  been   largely  destroyed ;   the 
land  had  been  devastated  by  civil  war;  the  dregs  of  rebellion 
lingered ;    animosities  of  race   and  faith   had   been   fearfully 
revived ;  above  all,  perhaps,  the  island,  as  had  always  been  the 
case,    was    ages    behind    England    in   civilisation  and  wealth. 
These  circumstances  alone  made  it  no  easy  task  to  govern 
Ireland   well   in   an    Imperial    Parliament,    and    by   ministers 
dependent  on  it.     If  the  Union  was  a  necessity  of  the  time,  if, 
on  the  whole,  it  was  to  effect  great  good,  it  was  to  be  seen 
that  it  was  not  an  unmixed  blessing,  and  that  it  was  to  be 
accompanied,  at  least,  with  some  real  evils. 


CHAPTER    IX. 

FROM   THE   UNION    TO   CATHOLIC   EiMANCIPATION. 

The  effect  on  Ireland  of  the  renewal  of  the  war  with  France  in  1803. 
Emmett's  rebellion.  Measures  of  repression.  Spread  of  Orangeism. 
The  Catholic  Irish  Question  in  the  Imperial  Parliament.  Failure  of 
the  Catholic  leaders.  Rise  of  O'Connell.  His  character  and  political 
aims.  His  efforts  at  first  of  little  avail.  The  Question  of  the  Veto. 
The  Catholic  Question  in  the  Liverpool  Government.  Its  position 
near  the  end  of  the  war.  Growing  attachment  of  Ulster  to  the  British 
connection  and  the  Union,  and  the  causes.  Material  progress  of 
Ireland  up  to  1S15.  The  Amalgamation  of  the  Irish  with  the  Imperial 
Exchequer.  Irish  Finance.  Sudden  and  continuous  decline  of  Ireland 
after  the  war.  Irish  landed  relations.  Their  evils  and  dangers. 
Policy  of  the  British  Government.  Sir  Arthur  Wellesley  and  Peel. 
Creation  of  the  Irish  Constabulary  force.  O'Connell  forms  the 
Catholic  Association.  Its  enormous  influence  m  Ireland.  The  pro- 
posed compromise  of  1825.  Its  failure.  The  Clare  Election.  Triumph 
of  O'Connell.     Catholic  Emancipation.     Reflections. 

The  Union  was  accomplished  a  few  months  only  before  the 
brief  truce  concluded  with  France  at  Amiens.  The  renewal  of 
the  great  war,  in  the  spring  of  1803,  was  a  disaster  for  the 
whole  civilised  world;  like  other  passages  of  the  French 
Revolution  it  was  attended  with  evil  results  for  Ireland.  Some 
of  the  United  Irish  leaders,  who,  after  the  late  amnesty,  had 
made  their  way  into  France,  began  to  conspire  anew  against 
the  British  Government ;  and  they  sought  the  assistance  of  the 

hi.  I.  19 


290  Ireland.  [Chap. 

First  Consul,  now  bent  on  an  invasion  of  England,  to  further,  if 
possible,  another  Irish  rising.  They  were,  however,  unable  to 
agree  in  a  common  design ;  the  fatal  discords  of  Irishmen  kept 
them  apart;  and  Napoleon,  who  throughout  his  whole  career 
'  detested  rebellious,  and  even  popular  movements,  regarded 
them,  we  have  seen,  with  distrust  and  contempt \  He  treated 
them  as  he  treated  Italians  and  Poles  who  sought  to  make  him 
a  champion  of  a  "  national  cause  "  and  appealed  to  him  in  the 
name  of  "  national  liberty."  He  flattered  them  with  fair  words 
and  promises ;  made  some  officers  of  an  "  Irish  Legion," 
partly  formed  of  the  emigrants  of  1798,  and  partly,  perhaps, 
of  veterans  of  the  old  Irish  Brigade ;  he  enrolled  this  force  in 
the  ranks  of  the  "Army  of  England  ";  he  kept  it  as  near  the 
Irish  coasts  as  possible;  and  though,  unlike  Hoche  and  the 
French  Directory,  he  never  had  Irish  independence  in  view,  or 
thought  of  making  Ireland  a  principal  point  of  attack,  a 
"diversion,"  in  this  direction,  he  believed  worth  trying,  and  in 
one  of  his  many  projects  for  a  descent  on  England  a  secondary 
descent  on  Ireland  has  a  place.  Napoleon,  in  a  word,  made 
Ireland  a  mere  pawn  in  his  game ;  and  when  Trafalgar  had 
put  an  end  to  all  hope  of  striking  England  at  the  heart,  the 
"  Irish  Legion "  followed  the  fortunes  of  the  Grand  Army,  a 
small  fraction  of  the  gigantic  military  power  of  France.  The 
conspiracy,  however,  which  had  been  formed  again,  and  the 
presence  of  an  Irish  armed  force  on  the  French  seaboard, 
unhappily  led  to  another  attempt  at  Irish  rebellion,  which, 
though  contemptible  in  its  results,  might  have  been  more 
disastrous  than  has  been  commonly  supposed.  Robert  Em- 
mett,  a  young  enthusiast  of  1798,  had  interviews  with  the 
United  Irishmen  in  France,  and,  it  has  been  said,  with  the 
First  Consul ;  he  resolved  to  embark  on  the  desperate  enter- 
prise of  assailing,  once  more,  British  power  in  Ireland.  His 
plan  was  the  old  one  of  seizing  the  Castle,  and  of  summoning 

^  Sec  Chapter  I.  note,  ante,  p.  20. 


IX.]       From  the   Union  to  Catholic  Emancipation.      291 

the  populace  of  Dublin  to  arms;  but  he  had  the  assistance  of 
an  able  man,  in  after  years  a  distinguished  soldier  of  France, 
and  he  was  promised  considerable  support  from  the  adjoining 
counties.  His  plot,  however,  was  probably  disclosed ;  and 
"  Emmett's  rebellion  "  ended  in  a  mere  street  brawl,  unfortu- 
nately disgraced  by  the  murder  of  an  eminent  Irish  judge.  The 
ill-fated  youth  paid  ere  long  the  penalty  of  his  crime ;  his 
memory  in  Ireland  is  not  forgotten ;  but  though  not  without 
daring,  and  even  resource,  he  was  only  an  inferior  Lord 
Edward  Fitzgerald. 

This  petty  outbreak  caused  alarm  in  England  and  Ireland, 
which  seems  excessive  at  this  distance  of  time ;  severe  measures 
of  repression  followed,  prolonged  unhappily  for  many  years, 
and  too  common  an  expedient  of  Irish  government.  Insur- 
rection Acts,  the  enforcement  of  martial  law,  and  repeated 
suspensions  of  the  Habeas  Corpus  Act,  became  regular  methods 
of  British  rule  in  Ireland,  with  little  interruption,  until  the  end 
of  the  war,  and  even  during  the  succeeding  period.  These 
severities  were  no  doubt  a  legacy  bequeathed  by  the  defunct 
Irish  Parliament,  which  had  never  hesitated  to  put  disorder 
down,  and  had  been  extravagantly  merciless  in  the  crisis  of 
1798;  nor  should  we  forget  that  Irish  rebellion  would  have 
been  a  terrible  danger  to  the  State  from  1803  to  1805,  when 
the  Grand  Army  was  encamped  round  Boulogne,  nay,  until 
after  Waterloo  and  the  fall  of  Napoleon.  But  repression  was 
much  too  indiscriminately  applied,  and  was  made  to  extend  to 
a  series  of  social  ills  for  which  different  remedies  should  have 
been  found ;  and  though  it  is  impossible  to  assert  that,  had  the 
state  of  things  before  the  Union  continued  to  exist,  legislation 
and  administration  would  have  been  better  or  more  wise,  still 
we  see  in  this  system  a  bad  sign  of  the  hard  and  oppressive 
Toryism  of  the  day,  and  in  some  degree,  perhaps,  of  the  want 
of  intelligence  and  of  sympathy  of  British  statesmen  in  Irish 
affairs.     Another  pernicious  result  of  the  war  and  of  the  spirit 

19 — 2 


292  Ireland.  [Chap. 

prevailing  in  Irish  government  was  a  great  increase  and  exten- 
sion of  what  we  may  describe  as  Orangeism,  and  all  that  is 
implied  in  the  name.  The  Orange  societies,  wt  have  seen, 
had  been  long  established  ;  they  had  unquestionably  weakened 
the  United  Irish  movement;  they  had  done  good  service, 
though  in  an  evil  way,  in  forcing  rebellion  in  Ireland  to  a  head, 
and  in  subduing  it  in  the  open  field.  They  had  also  been 
supported  by  the  Irish  Government  as  far  back,  perhaps,  as 
1795  ;  and  here  again  British  rulers  had  succeeded  to  a  state 

^  of  things  they  found  in  existence.  But  Orangeism  was  directly 
encouraged  after  the  Union  for  many  years  in  Ireland ;  it  was 
deemed  a  check  on  Irish  disaffection  and  crime ;  it  furnished 
the  army  with  thousands  of  recruits,  and  especially  with  a  body 
of  brave  and  loyal  officers  ;  it  had  two  of  the  Royal  Family  on 
its  lists,  it  was  powerfully  sustained  by  opinion  in  England, 
and  it  made  rapid  and  widely  reaching  progress.  The  Orange 
Associations  spread  far  and  near ;  they  drew  into  their  ranks 
immense  numbers  of  Irish  Protestants  of  the  lower  orders — the 

I  worst  specimens  of  the  Ascendency  that  bore  their  name;  and 
they  had  adherents  in  some  of  the  Irish  landed  gentry,  dis- 
trustful, since  recent  events,  of  Catholic  Ireland.  This  organi- 
sation of  domineering  sectarian  faction,  backed  by  the  State, 
but  lawless  and  no  part  of  it,  had  a  most  mischievous  effect  in 
making  more  wide  and  broad  the  old  distinctions  of  blood  revived 
in  Ireland,  and  in  exasperating  passions  of  class;  it  was  Pro- 
testant oppression  in  its  most  odious  aspect ;  it  quickened  all 
that  was  most  dangerous  and  bad  in  Catholic  Ireland.  Un- 
doubtedly, when  its  evils  had  become  manifest,  it  was  not 
favoured  by  the  few  real  statesmen  in  power  in  Ireland  soon 
after  the  Union  ;  but  its  disastrous  work  was  not  easily  undone; 
and,  in  another  way,  it  had  an  injurious  tendency.  The  great 
majority  of  the  Irish  gentry  have  never  been  Orangemen  in  any 
•  sense,  or  can  be  said  to  have  had  Orange  sympathies ;  yet 
they  were  largely  subjected  to  this  reproach  when  Orangeism 


IX.]       From  tJie  Union  to  Catholic  Emancipation.      293 

was  condemned  in  high  places ;  and  the  results  for  them  have 
not  been  fortunate. 

The  Catholic  Question  was  however  the  main  incident  in 
the  affairs  of  Ireland,  that  in  which  the  gravest  issues  were 
involved  at  this  period,  and  for  years  afterwards,  Pitt  returned 
to  office  in  1S04;  the  Irish  Catholic  leaders,  for  the  most  part 
men  of  high  degree,  had  remained  quiescent  during  the  rule  of 
Addington;  they  now  confidently  believed  their  opportunity 
had  come.  A  deputation  from  their  body  waited  on  the 
Minister ;  they  relied  on  what  they  conceived  were  the  pledges 
on  the  strength  of  which  they  had  given  the  Union  support ; 
they  dwelt,  it  has  been  alleged,  with  emphasis  on  two  papers 
written  by  Castlereagh  and  Cornwallis,  and  placed  in  their 
hands.  But  Pitt  threw  them  over,  whatever  the  excuse;  he 
declared  that  the  time  was  not  expedient ;  he  put  them  off 
with  faint  words  of  compromise.  They  then  turned  in  their 
strait  to  Fox ;  a  vehement  and  able  debate  followed,  remark- 
'able  for  the  appearance,  for  the  first  time,  of  Grattan  in  the 
Imperial  Parliament — his  speech  was  a  magnificent  display ; 
but  Pitt  voted  against  any  measure  of  relief,  though  he  recog- 
nised, he  said,  the  Catholic  claims  "in  principle.'^  When  Fox 
and  Lord  Grenville  came  into  office.  Fox  candidly  informed 
the  Catholic  leaders  that  Catholic  emancipation  was  not 
possible ;  the  obstinate  bigotry  of  George  III  was,  in  truth, 
approved  by  nearly  his  whole  family ;  indeed,  as  is  well  known, 
this  Ministry  fell  in  an  attempt  to  obtain  a  concession  for 
English  Catholic  officers,  which  had  been  extended  by  the 
great  measure  of  1793  to  their  Irish  fellows.  The  Government 
of  "all  the  Talents"  was  well  disposed  to  Ireland;  but  it 
accomplished  little,  save  to  mitigate,  in  part,  the  system  of  re- 
pression for  years  in  force ;  and  it  should  be  added  that,  when 
it  resigned,  it  had  coercive  measures  in  view,  owing  to  the 
apprehension  of  French  influence,  and  of  the  effects  of  Napo- 
leon's conquests  on  disaffected  Ireland.     These  measures  were 


294  Ireland.  [Char 

adopted  by  their  Tory  successors  and,  to  a  certain  extent, 
received  the  sanction  of  Grattan,  an  enemy  of  the  French 
Revolution  in  all  its  phases ;  it  may  be  said  too,  here,  that  he 
had  attached  himself  to  the  small  party  of  Whigs  who  sought 
to  continue  the  war;  his  speech  against  Napoleon  in  1815 
remains  one  of  his  most  brilliant  efforts.  Meanwhile  the 
Irish  Catholic  Question  had  begun  to  lose  ground  in  the 
Imperial  Parliament,  and  Irish  Catholic  hopes  were  painfully 
deferred.  At  the  general  election  of  1807  the  subject  was 
made  a  battle  cry  of  party,  and  British  opinion,  become 
intensely  Protestant,  through  the  influence  of  the  narrow 
Toryism  of  the  time  and  of  the  evangelical  school  of  teaching, 
pronounced  decisively  against  the  Irish  Catholic  claims.  A 
national  sentiment  also  concurred ;  Catholic  France  was  at  the 
feet  of  Napoleon ;  the  Pope  was  Napoleon's  submissive 
instrument  \  was  this  the  time  to  listen  to  Catholic  Ireland, 
the  friend  of  England's  declared  foes  ? 

The  Irish  Catholic  leaders,  we  have  seen,  were  nearly  all 
nobles  and  great  gentlemen  ;  one  only,  indeed,  represented  the 
middle  and  trading  class  prominent  at  the  Catholic  Conimittee 
of  1792-93.  Their  somewhat  feeble  efforts  had  conspicuously 
failed ;  they  were  now^  to  give  place  to  a  very  different  person- 
age, the  Liberator,  as  he  has  been  justly  called,  of  Catholic 
Ireland.  O'Connell,  by  this  time,  though  still  kept  down  by 
one  of  the  exceptions  in  the  Act  of  1793,  which  prevented 
him  attaining  the  rank  of  King's  Counsel,  had  risen  to  eminence 
at  the  Bar  of  Ireland ;  he  was  soon  to  become  its  most  striking 
figure,  less  on  account  of  mere  learning,  or  even  eloquence — 
great  as  were  the  effects  of  his  rude  strength  of  speech — as  for 
his  unparalleled  skill  in  the  conduct  of  causes.  He  had,  we 
have  seen,  when  almost  a  youth,  made  an  energetic  protest 
against  the  Union  ;  he  doubtless  believed,  with  other  able  men, 
that  the  cause  of  the  Irish  Catholic  would,  not  improbably,  be 
thrown  back  in  the  Imperial  Parliament ;  he  clearly  perceived 


IX.]       From  the  Union  to  Catholic  Emancipation.      295 

that  Catholic  Ireland  would  necessarily  acquire,  in  the  course 
of  events,  enormous  power  in  an  Irish  Parliament.  Nor  is  it 
possible  to  deny  that  he  retained  these  views  throughout  his 
long  and  chequered  career,  and  that  he  was  sincere  as  a 
champion  of  Repeal,  if  he  certainly  put  the  question  more 
than  once  aside,  and  even  dealt  with  it  as  a  mere  party  move. 
At  this  juncture,  however,  the  Catholic  claims  engrossed  the 
attention  of  the  Irish  Catholics ;  and  O'Connell  devoted  his 
commanding  powers  to  their  cause.  He  obtained  a  place  on 
the  Catholic  Committee ;  gradually  forced  aside  by  his  capacity 
and  will  its  aristocratic  and  inefficient  leaders ;  and  became,  as 
Chairman,  its  master  spirit  in  18 10,  when  in  his  thirty-sixth 
year.  His  antecedents,  his  training,  his  remarkable  gifts  made 
him  singularly  fitted  to  direct  the  cause  of  Catholic  Ireland  to 
a  triumphant  issue.  He  had  been  versed  in  the  arts  of  the 
smuggler  from  early  boyhood ;  he  was  perfectly  skilled  in  the 
wiles  of  the  law ;  though  a  Celt  of  the  Celts,  and  richly 
endowed  with  the  gaiety,  the  fancy,  the  quick  mind  of  the 
Celt,  his  intelligence  was  massive,  his  sagacity  profound ;  || 
unlike  most  Celts  he  had  hard  common  sense,  the  power  of 
seeing  things  as  they  really  are,  the  spirit  of^compromise  and  of 
waiting  on  events;  he  was  the  very  man  to  vindicate,  with  success, 
claims  urged  on  behalf  of  a  still  wronged  people,  certain  to  be 
opposed  by  the  party  dominant  in  the  State,  and  by  powerful 
interests  backed  by  Government  and  ultimately  tending  to 
agitation  and  trouble.  It  was,  however,  the  distinctive 
mark  of  O'Connell's  genius  that  he  saw  how  in  the  existing 
condition  of  Catholic  Ireland,  and  especially  of  the  Irish 
Catholic  priesthood — forces  utterly  disregarded  since  1798— it 
was  possible  to  combine  a  vast  array  of  power,  which  might 
compel  a  settlement  of  the  Catholic  Question,  and  this  too 
without  violence,  disorder  and  crime,  by  the  mere  organisation 
of  a  great  popular  movement.  For  the  rest,  O'Connell  had 
strong  Conservative  sympathies ;  he  haled  the  French  Revo- 


296  Ireland.  [Chap. 

lulion  and  all  its  vvorTsS ;  he  condemned  the  United  Irish,  and 
the  late  agrarian  risings;  he  had  the  instinct  of  the  rights  of 
property  in  the  highest  degree;  and  he  had  thus  much  in  com- 
mon with  parts  of  Protestant  Ireland,  and  especially  with  the 
Irish  landed  gentry,  of  whom  he  attracted  numbers  to  his  side, 
though  it  was  his  fate  ultimately  to  injure  the  whole  order. 
O'Connell    breathed    a   new   life    into    the   almost    dying 
movement,  in  behalf  of  the  Catholic  claims,   from   the  first 
moment.       He    made    vehement    appeals    to    the    Catholic 
masses,  in  homely,  coarse,  often  scurrilous  language,. required, 
he  insisted,  to  rouse  them  up ;  he  endeavoured  to  extend  the 
Catholic    Committee    in    Dublin,    by   affiliated    Committees, 
throughout   the    country.     His    influence,    however,    was    but 
little  felt  for  a  time;  it  was  chiefly  manifested,  indeed,  in  the 
masterly  craft  with  which  he  turned  aside  the  arm  of  the  law, 
directed  against  him  by  the  Irish  Government — especially  in 
his  evasion   of  a  celebrated  Act  prohibiting  assemblies  of  a 
representative  kind,   and  aimed  at  the  Catholic    Convention 
of    1792-3, — and    in    his    povv'erful   speeches    at  the   Bar,    in 
defence  of  the  Catholic  Press,  to  which  he  had  given  a  great 
impulse.     The  Catholic  Question  languished  for  some  years; 
its  prospects  were   gravely  imperilled   by  dissensions,   which 
divided  the  Catholic  community  in  Great  Britain  and  Ireland. 
So  far  back  as  1799,  in  the  negotiations  before  the  Union,  the 
Heads  of  the  Catholic  Church  in  Ireland  had  consented  that  the 
appointment  of  the  Irish  Bishops  should  be  subject  to  a  veto  on 
the  part  of  the  Crown ;  the  policy  of  the  Holy  See  had,  for  many 
years,  been  in  this  direction,  as  was  notably  seen  in  the  famous 
Concordat  between  the  Church  and  the  State  in  France ;  and 
in  1808,  and  again  in  18 14,  two  high  personages  supposed  to 
express  the  sentiments  of  Pius  VJI,  the  Pope,  unequivocally 
declared  for  the  veto  in  Ireland.     The  Catholics  of  England 
and  Scotland  almost  to  a  man,  and  a  large  majority  of  Irish 
Catholics  of  the  higher  orders,  supported  a  measure,  which  they 


IX.]       From  the  Union  to  Catholic  Emancipation,      297 

deemed  a  security  for  order  and  peace  in  the  State;  but 
O'Connell,  and  the  whole  CathoHc  Irish  priesthood,  denounced 
it  as  Erastianism  of  the  very  worst  kind,  and  insisted  that  the 
Church — it  received  nothing  from  a  State  which  had  been  for 
ages  its  deadly  enemy — should  retain  the  freedom  which,  in  a 
qualified  sense,  it  possessed,  even  under  the  Penal  Code'. 
These  differences  of  opinion  almost  caused  a  schism ;  the 
advocates  of  the  Catholic  Cause  seemed  to  be  in  the  position 
of  a  house  divided  against  itself  Grattan — he  supported  the 
veto — brought  forward  the  Catholic  claims  in  1809  and  1810; 
but  as  usual  Parliament  pronounced  against  him,  though  his 
eloquence  never  rose  to  a  more  imposing  height.  The  Question, 
however,  made  some  progress,  especially  as  the  fortunes  of  the 
war  turned  \  it  was  treated  by  the  Liverpool  Ministry  as  an 
open  question — a  proof  that  its  importance  was  not  under- 
stood ;  but  Canning  and  Castlereagh  were  in  its  favour.  It 
obtained  a  majority  in  the  House  of  Commons  in  1813,  the 
veto  being  part  of  the  proposed  scheme;  but  the  Bill  was 
destroyed  in  Committee,  and  was  ultimately  let  drop. 

The  results,  therefore,  of  our  rule  in  Ireland,  during  the 
fifteen  years  that  followed  the  Union,  had  been,  if  we  speak 
generally,  these.  A  system  of  severe  repression  had  been 
established,  and,  for  the  most  part,  affected  Catholic  Ireland; 
there  had  been  a  large  growth  of  Orangeism  favoured  by  the 
State,  and  stirring  the  passions  of  the  Irish  Protestants ; 
divisions  of  race  and  religion  had  probably  widened ;  and 
Catholic  Emancipation  had  been  long  postponed,  nay,  at  the 
present  moment,  seemed  all  but  hopeless.  We  must  seek  for 
the  causes  of  this  state  of  things,  mainly  in  the  feelings 
engendered  in  1798,  in  the  measures  then  adopted  by  the 
Irish  Parliament,  in  the  apprehensions  produced  by  the  war, 
and  in  the  reactionary  Tory  spirit  of  the  time ;  but  something, 

^  Burke,  it  is  evident  from  many  passages  in  his  writings,  would  have 
opposed  the  veto  in  Ireland. 


298  Ireland.  [Chap. 

too,  must,  certainly,  be  ascribed  to  narrow-minded  bigotry  in 
high  places,  to  prejudice  and  ignorance  in  the  Imperial  Parha- 
ment,  and  to  the  want  of  insight  of  many  of  the  statesmen  in 
power.     Signs    of    a   change    for    the    better    were,    however, 
visible;    the   Catholic   Question  would   have   made    progress, 
but  for  disunion  in  the  Catholic  Body  as  a  whole ;  in  some 
respects   distinct  and  hopeful    improvements   in    Irish   affairs 
had  become  manifest.    The  extension  of  trade,  soon  to  become 
free,  had  greatly  increased  the  wealth  of  Ulster ;    her  linen 
manufacture  made  an  immense  advance ;  many  tracts  of  the 
province  were   enriched ;    Belfast  became  a  large  port  and  a 
noble  seat  of  commerce.     The  very  district  of  Ireland  which 
had  been  the  centre  of  the  rebellious  movement  of  1793-8, 
became,  in  its  Teutonic  and  Protestant  parts, — and  these  were 
in  all  respects  dominant — attached  by  degrees  to  Britisti  rule 
and   the    Union ;    and   this    sentiment,    ever    since    growing 
stronger,  was   promoted   by  a  wise  act  of  policy,   the  signifi- 
cance of  which  should  have  been  more  clearly  perceived.    The 
Irish  Presbyterian  Ministry  had,  for  many  years,  received  a  small 
endowment  from  the  State ;  this  was  considerably  augmented 
after  the  Union,  and  so  distributed  that  it  enlisted  the  interests 
of  the  clergy  on  the  side  of  the  Government ;  and  the  Presby- 
terian  Church,  in  Ulster,  a  most  potent   influence,  has  ever 
since   been   devotedly  loyal,   and  a  firm  ally  of  the    British 
connection,  some  proof  at  least  what  the  result  would  have 
been  had  the  Catholic  Irish  Church  been  treated  in  the  same 
way,  as  was  contemplated  in   1799  and  1800.     It  should  be 
added  that,  while  the  war  continued,  the  wealth   of   Ireland 
generally   was    certainly    increased.      This    comparative   pro- 
sperity was,  no  doubt,  to  a  great  extent,  fictitious ;  it  largely 
depended  on  mere  passing  causes ;  the  parade  made  of  it  by 
politicians,  at  the  time,  was  another  instance  of  the  delusive 
optimism  respecting  Ireland,  too  often  seen  in  opinion  ;   and 
the  whole  social  structure  of  Ireland,  as  was  soon  to  appear, 


IX.]       From  the   Union  to  Catholic  Emancipation.      299 

was  resting  on  dangerous  foundations,  that  were  becoming 
worse.  Still  the  influence  of  enlarged  trade  told  ;  and  as  long 
as  the  high  war  prices-  lasted,  Ireland  made  real  material 
progress. 

A  short  time  after  the  close  of  the  war  a  change  in  the 
financial  system  of  Ireland  was  made  on  which  it  is  necessary 
to  say  a  word.  Ireland,  it  was  soon  found,  could  not  afford  to 
pay  the  two-seventeenths  of  the  expenditure,  which,  we  have 
seen,  had  been  the  share  arranged  at  the  Union— the  amount 
was  certainly  too  large — :  and  the  Debt  of  Ireland  had, 
accordingly,  increased  much  more  quickly  than  that  of  Great 
Britain.  It  had  been  settled  when  the  Union  took  place  that 
when  the  Debts  of  the  two  countries  and  their  contributions 
stood  in  the  same  ratio,  they  might  be  thrown,  so  to  speak, 
into  one;  this  event  happened  in  1816-17;  the  two  Debts 
became  a  single  National  Debt ;  and  the  separate  Irish  Ex- 
chequer ceased  to  exist,  being  merged  in  the  Imperial 
Exchequer.  The  Debt  of  Ireland  before  the  Union  was, 
proportionately,  very  much  less  than  that  of  Great  Britain ;  by 
the  amalgamation  of  the  two  Debts,  the  two  islands  were  made 
liable,  apparently,  to  a  common  burden ;  and  this  has  been 
denounced  as  a  gross  wrong,  not  only  by  clamorous  Irish  faction, 
but  by  more  than  one  capable  and  well-informed  thinker.  It 
must  be  borne  in  mind,  however,  that,  for  more  than  thirty 
years  after  the  consolidation  of  the  twofold  Debt,  the  taxation 
of  Ireland  was  much  lower  than  that  of  either  England  or 
Scotland ;  the  burden,  therefore,  was  not,  in  fact,  common ; 
and  if  a  grievance  existed  in  this  matter,  it  was  not  nearly  so 
great  as  has  been  often  alleged.  Soon  after  the  middle  of  the 
present  century  the  taxation  of  Ireland  was  enormously  in- 
creased by  the  very  Minister  who  has  been  held  up  to  the 
mass  of  Irishmen  as  their  best  friend, — the  notable  champion 
of  their  rights  and  Hberties ;  and  it  seems  probable — this  at 
least   is   the    better   opinion — that    it   has   been,    ever    since, 


300  Ireland.  [Chap. 

excessive,  compared  to  that  of  Great  Britain.  On  the  other 
hand,  the  contributions  to  Irish  demands  and  needs,  made 
lavishly  by  the  Imperial  exchequer,  often  in  the  nature  of  free 
grants,  and  amounting  to  an  immense  sum,  must  be  considered 
on  the  other  side ;  and  it  is  idle  to  argue  that  this  is  not  to  be 
taken  into  account.  We  cannot  examine  the  problem  further ; 
it  has  been  the  subject  of  prolonged  enquiries,  one  actually 
being  held  at  this  moment ;  all  that  can  be  said  is  that  if  we 
recollect  the  numberless,  complex,  and  uncertain  elements, 
which  necessarily  enter  into  the  question,  it  will  be  difficult  in 
the  extreme  ever  to  adjust  the  balance. 

The  close  of  the  war  was  followed  by  a  period  of  distress, 
felt  severely  in  Ireland  for  a  considerable  time,  accompanied 
by  grave  social  evils,  and  culminating  in  famine  in  parts  of  the 
country.  The  contraction  of  the  currency  produced  suffering 
in  a  community  where  there  was  little  credit,  where,  as  at  all 
times,  the  middle  class  was  weak,  and  where  tlie  mass 
of  the  people  was  a  rent-paying  peasantry.  But  the  chief 
immediate  cause  of  distress  was  the  sudden  collapse  of  prices, 
an  inevitable  incident  of  the  peace,  which  affected  in  a  great 
variety  of  ways  the  different  classes  connected  with  the  soil, 
and  disorganised  relations,  never  well-ordered,  and  becoming, 
for  some  time,  more  and  more  vicious.  The  main  structure  of 
the  land  system  of  Ireland  continued  to  be  what  it  had  long 
been ;  except  in  a  part  of  Ulster  the  owners  and  occupiers  of 
the  soil  were  parted  by  distinctions  of  blood  and  faith ;  even  in 
Presbyterian  Ulster  there  was  a  separation  of  this  kind;  ab- 
senteeism still,  to  a  great  extent,  prevailed;  middleman 
tenures,  though  fast  diminishing,  were  still  numerous ;  and  the 
great  body  of  the  peasantry  were  poor  and  servile,  especially  in 
parts  of  Munster,  and  throughout  Connaught.  But  a  whole 
series  of  events  had,  for  many  years,  concurred  to  increase  the 
population  in  a  remarkable  degree,  and  to  create  an  immense 
change  in  landed  relations,  of  which  the  evil  effects  became 


IX.]       From  the  Union  to  Catholic  Emancipation.      301 

but  too  apparent.  The  long  war  produced  a  demand  for  corn 
and  meat,  threw  milHons  of  acres  into  tillage,  and  covered 
them  with  a  teeming  peasantry  living  from  hand  to  mouth. 
The  corn  laws  of  the  Irish  Parliament  cooperated  in  the  same 
direction  ;  and  tliis  was  an  effect,  too,  of  the  Relief  Act  of 
1793,  which  by  giving  the  franchise  to  the  CathoHc  masses 
encouraged  their  superiors  to  multiply  them  on  the  soil,  in  the 
position  as  it  was  called  of  "forty  shilling  freeholders,"  but 
really  of  dependent  serfs.  By  these  means  the  population,  it  is 
believed,  more  than  doubled  in  less  than  forty  years ;  and  by 
the  end  of  the  war  it  had  begun  to  press  heavily  on  the 
resources  of  the  land,  if  not  yet  so  fearfully  redundant  as  it  was 
to  become. 

The  economic  consequences  of  this  abnormal  growth  were 
that  rents  rose  extravagantly  in  a  short  space  of  time,  that  the 
wages  of  labour  immensely  diminished,  and  that  a  huge  mass 
of  penury  was  thrown  upon  the  land  eking  existence  out  on  a 
most  precarious  root.  The  social  consequences  were  also 
well  marked ;  middleman  tenures  began  to  disappear  quickly ; 
but  the  landed  gentry  lived  at  a  more  expensive  rate,  and 
many  became  more  harsh  and  strict  in  their  dealings  with  the 
peasantry  than  their  fathers  had  been.  Things,  however,  went 
on  tolerably  well,  so  long  as  the  high  war  prices  lasted;  Ireland 
certainly  became,  by  degrees,  more  wealthy ;  what  was  rotten 
in  her  social  condition  hardly  attracted  notice.  But  when  her 
resources  were  immensely  reduced  by  the  fall  in  value  of  nearly 
all  her  products,  the  evils  of  the  increase  of  her  population 
were  most  acutely  felt ;  the  misery  of  her  backward  districts 
became  infinitely  worse ;  hundreds  of  thousands  of  souls  were 
brought  to  the  verge  of  starvation;  from  1818  to  1822, 
especially  in  the  last  named  year,  parts  of  some  counties 
were  afflicted  by  famine.  Yet  these  were  not  the  only,  or 
perhaps  the  most  grave  results  :  rents  suddenly  fell  with  the 
fall  of  prices;  a  collapse  of  the  wages   of  labour   followed; 


302  Ireland.  [Chap. 

society  from  top  to  bottom  became  out  of  joint  and  disordered. 
Evictions  took  place  in  portentous  numbers ;  thousands  of  the 
occupiers  of  the  soil  were  driven  from  their  homes,  like  the 
humble  peasants  of  England  in  the  sixteenth  century;   and 
widespread  discontent  filled  whole  parts  of  the  country.     One 
circumstance  of  extreme  importance  made  this  process  of  dis- 
possession  most   harsh    and    iniquitous.       It   is    a   necessary 
incident  of  the   Irish   small  farm  system — the  same  fact  has 
been    seen   in    other   lands — that    the    occupier    makes    the 
improvements    on   his   farm ;    in    fact    creates   what   may   be 
called  its  plant ;    this  had  become  almost  a  universal  custom 
with  the  extension  of  tillage  and  population ;  and  in  this  way 
the  tenant  class  in  Ireland  had  acquired  a  kind  of  concurrent 
right  in  their  holdings.     It  is  perfectly  true  that,  in  the  great 
mass  of  instances,  the  Irish  landed  gentry  had  respected  this 
right — it  curiously  corresponded  in  some  respects  to  the  archaic 
joint  ownership  of   Celtic  tenure,  that  of   the  comparatively 
"free  tenants" — ;  and  in  Ulster  it  had  become  a  recognised 
form  of  property  \     But  too  many  exceptions  to  the  usage  were 
made;  and  as  evictions  multiplied  in  this  period  of  distress, 
the  rights  of  the  Irish  occupier  were  not  seldom  destroyed  by 
extravagant,   thoughtless,  and  needy   landlords,   especially   of 
the    middleman    order.      The    evil    consequences    became   at 
once   manifest :    the  Whiteboy   system    arrayed   a   law  of  its 
own,  to  which  the  tenant  appealed  for  aid  against  the  law  of 
the   land   he    had   always    thought   his   foe ;    secret    societies 
enforced   their   mandates   by   assassination    and    outrages    of 
many  kinds ;  and  the  divisions  in  society  in  Ireland  opened 
wide  again. 

This  season  of  distress  was  a  kind  of  prelude  to  one  far 

^  The  Ulster  custom  of  Tenant  Right  has  been  ascribed  to  the  Celtic 
tenure  of  the  "free  tenants."  This  seems  doubtful,  for  the  custom  prevailed 
most  strongly  in  the  colonised  country.  Still  Ulster  was  colonised  at  a 
later  period  than  the  other  provinces. 


IX.]       From  the  Union  to  Catholic  Emancipation.      303 

more  terrible  that  was  to  come.  The  conduct  of  the  people 
of  England  and  of  the  men  who  ruled  Ireland,  at  this  crisis, 
must  be  rapidly  glanced  at.  British  charity  flowed  into  the 
famine-stricken  districts ;  Parliament  held  enquiries,  and  voted 
a  large  sum  for  relief  But  no  attempt  was  made  to  under- 
stand or  lessen  the  deep-seated  social  ills  of  the  country ;  they 
were,  indeed,  aggravated  by  bad  laws  and  by  bad  statesman- 
ship. A  Poor  Law  should  have  been  enacted  to  compel 
property  to  guard  against  an  excessive  population,  ever  in 
want,  and  to  bear  its  already  weighty  burden ;  the  middleman 
tenures  should  have  been  abolished,  or  made  perpetual  in 
some  instances ;  above  all,  eviction  should  have  been  dis- 
couraged, and  the  rights  of  the  occupier  in  the  soil  should 
have  been  made  secure.  Nothing,  however,  in  these  directions 
was  done;  Ireland  had  never  been  subject  to  the  English 
Poor  Law,  and  this,  perhaps  on  account  of  its  grave  abuses, 
was  not  extended  to  her  at  this  time ;  no  changes  were  made 
in  the  middleman  system,  great  and  evident  as  were  its 
numerous  mischiefs ;  the  process  of  wholesale  eviction  was  not 
checked;  the  rights  of  the  tenant  were  permitted  to  be  wrongly 
confiscated  in  many  thousand  cases.  Unhappily,  on  the 
contrary,  the  law  of  ejectment  was  made  more  expeditious  and 
cheap  than  before,  so  that  facilities  for  eviction  were  recklessly 
given ;  and  in  supposed  respect  for  the  rights  of  property,  the 
rights  of  the  tenant  were  sacrificed  to  the  English  law  of 
tenure,  imposed  on  Ireland — like  other  institutions  of  the 
kind — at  no  time  in  accord  with  Irish  ideas,  and  absolutely 
unjust,  in  the  landed  relations,  which  had  been  growing  up  for 
some  years  in  Ireland.  Nor  was  this  all ;  it  was  not  perceived 
that  Whiteboyism  and  agrarian  trouble  were  symptoms  of  evil 
in  the  frame  of  society,  and  a  kind  of  rude  defence  against 
social  wrongs ;  the  whole  force  of  the  law  and  of  repressive 
measures,  designed  to  deal  with  rebellious  movements,  was 
directed  against  "a  system  of  wild  justice," — the  phrase  is  | 


30_l.  Ireland.  [Chap. 

O'Connell's — whicli  commanded  sympathy;  and  the  result 
was  to  quicken  the  angry  discontent  felt  widely  through  the 
Irish  community.  England  had,  certainly,  to  complain  at 
this  time  of  the  "  Six  Acts,"  and  of  other  examples  of  bad 
government;  but  the  case  of  Ireland  was  by  many  degrees 
worse. 

During  the  first  twenty  years  that  followed  the  Union, 
Ireland  was  ruled  almost  wholly  by  English  statesmen,  nearly 
all  men  of  an  inferior  order.  "The  English  interest,"  in  a 
word,  became  again  dominant;  "the  Irish  interest"  was  held 
of  little  account;  and  this  is  the  more  remarkable  because 
Ireland  had  many  public  men  of  conspicuous  parts.  The 
change  was  very  apparent  in  the  Irish  Bar,  placed  under 
English  Chancellors  for  years ;  it  may  be  said  generally  that, 
throughout  this  period,  little  regard  was  given  to  Irish  opinion. 
To  the  mediocrities  from  England  there  v/ere  two  exceptions. 
Sir  Arthur  Wellesley, — Irish  by  birth  indeed,  but  English  in 
'  ^  blood,  in  faith,  in  ideas, — was  Chief  Secretary  for  Ireland  for 
some  months;  and  Peel  from  1812  to  1818.  Of  Wellesley  at 
the  Castle  little  need  be  said ;  he  was  true  to  the  narrow 
Toryism  of  the  day;  gave  proof  as  always  of  sound  common 
sense ;  and  showed  a  strong  aversion  to  the  corrupt  jobbing  of 
administration  in  Irish  affairs,  an  evil  heritage  of  the  past  for 
which  Englishmen  are  chiefly  to  blame.  Peel,  however,  made 
a  real  mark  in  Ireland  ;  his  Irish  career  was  notable  for  several 
I  reasons.  He  was  bitterly  denounced  as  "  Orange  Peel,"  by 
O'Connell,  and  his  sympathies  were  on  the  side  of  Protestant 
Ireland ;  but  he  fully  perceived  the  evils  of  the  whole  Orange 
system,  its  fiercely  sectarian  and  factious  temper,  dangerous  to 
public  order,  and  even  to  the  State ;  he  kept  it  under,  and 
gave  it  no  countenance.  But  Peel's  most  remarkable  work  in 
Ireland — a  social  reform  of  the  first  importance — was  the 
creation  of  the  great  Constabulary  force,  followed  ulti- 
mately by  the  institution  of  paid  magistrates,  which  has  long 


IX.]       From  the  Union  to  Catholic  Emancipation.      305 

formed  the  general  police  of  the  country.  A  measure  of  this 
kind  was  greatly  needed ;  the  old  local  Irish  Constabulary  was 
feeble  and  worthless ;  the  military  power  in  Ireland  had 
performed,  hitherto,  many  of  the  duties  of  a  police  with 
mischievous  results;  and  if  ordinary  justice  was  well  ad- 
ministered by  the  landed  gentry  of  high  degree,  a  large  section 
of  the  magistracy  was  ignorant  and  corrupt,  and  represented 
Protestant  Ascendency  too  faithfully  on  the  Bench.  The 
reform  of  Peel,  fully  developed  in  time,  has  contributed 
powerfully  to  preserve  public  peace  and  order  throughout 
Ireland ;  to  make  the  administration  of  justice  more  pure  and 
impartial ;  to  lessen  one  of  the  worst  of  Irish  ills — the  bad  result 
of  a  lamentable  past — the  spirit  of  lawlessness,  and  of  want  of 
self-restraint,  pervading  unhappily  many  classes  of  men.  Yet 
Peel  was  wanting  in  much,  as  a  ruler  in  Ireland :  he  did 
nothing  to  mitigate  the  social  mischiefs  which  grew  out  of  Irish 
landed  relations ;  he  was  the  author,  it  is  believed,  of  the 
cheap  code  of  ejectment;  he  carried  out  the  severest  repression 
in  protecting  what  he  unwisely  regarded  as  the  rights  of  land- 
lords. He  was,  also,  an  able  opponent  of  the  Catholic  claims; 
in  fact,  he  was  a  good  specimen  of  a  great  middle  class  1 
Englishman,  conservative,  prejudiced,  slow  to  be  moved,  un- ' 
able  to  grasp  ideas  that  were  foreign  to  him.  He  changed, 
indeed,  his  views  as  to  Ireland  more  than  once  afterwards; 
but  the  change  unfortunately  was  very  late. 

The  policy  adopted  for  Ireland,  in  these  years  of  distress, 
once  more  illustrated  the  ignorance  of  British  statesmen'  as  to 
the  conditions  of  social  life  in  Ireland  ;  and  showed  very  clearly 
how  difficult  it  was  to  govern,  with  success,  a  country  linked  to 
Great  Britain,  but  centuries  behind  it  in  general  progress.  An 
incident  happened  in   182 1,  not  without  interest  to  students 

1  This  was  often  noticed  by  O'Connell,  like   so  many  of  his  prede- 
cessors. 

M.  I.  20 


3o6  Ireland.  [Chap. 

of  Irisli  History;  George  IV  made  an  entry,  in  state,  into 
Dublin,  the  first  King  of  England,  since  Richard  II,  who  had 
set  foot  in  Ireland,  except  as  an  enemy.  He  was  one  of  the 
worst  of  British  Sovereigns ;  and  yet  his  presence  was  greeted 
with  tumultuous  acclaim,  a  significant  proof  of  what  might 
have  been  the  effect  of  Kingship,  on  the  spot,  on  Celtic 
nature,  always  attached  to  persons  rather  than  to  institutions  and 
laws.  During  the  period  between  1813  and  1820,  Grattan  had 
continued  to  advocate  the  Catholic  claims,  but  under  cir- 
cumstances in  many  respects  adverse.  The  Veto  still  divided 
the  whole  Catholic  Body ;  and  Grattan  was  repudiated,  as  a 
champion  of  their  cause,  by  O'Connell,  the  priesthood,  and 
the  mass  of  Catholic  Ireland.  Yet  the  high  souled  patriot 
clung,  as  he  said,  "  with  desperate  fidelity,"  to  right  and 
justice ;  and  though  he  never  obtained  a  majority  in  behalf  of 
his  demand,  he  lived  to  see  that  his  adversaries  were  evidently 
.  losing  ground.  He  passed  away  quietly  in  1820,  a  great 
•  orator,  a  real  statesman,  a  lover  of  his  country,  in  the  best 
sense  of  the  word  ;  it  deserves  notice,  too,  that,  in  his  later 
years,  he  seems  to  have  approved  of  the  Union  he  had  so 
fiercely  denounced.  His  successor  was  Plunket,  greatly  his 
inferior  in  every  way  as  a  political  figure,  but  a  Parliamentary 
speaker  of  the  very  first  order,  whose  cogent  logic  and  sedate 
eloquence  were  more  in  harmony  with  a  British  audience  than 
the  declamation  and  fiery  passion  of  Grattan,  injured  as  these 
sometimes  were,  by  a  bad  mannerism.  By  this  time  the 
Catholic  Question  was  gradually  making  way  in  British 
opinion ;  it  was  ably  sustained  by  the  united  Whig  party, 
which  was  slowly  regaining  its  place  in  the  State.  Neverthe- 
less, though  Plunket,  in  1821,  succeeded  in  carrying  a  Bill 
through  the  House  of  Commons,  in  favour  of  the  Catholic 
claims,  this  was  thrown  out  by  the  House  of  Lords ;  and  as 
provisions  for  the  veto  had  been  attached  to  it,  the  measure 
was  condemned  by  O'Connell  and  his  adherents. 


IX.]       From  the  Union  to  CatJiolic  Emancipation.      307 

If  the  Catholic  Question  had,  by  this  time,  distinctly  made 
an  advance  in  England,  in  Ireland  it  seemed  as  if  it  had  gone 
back.  O'Connell,  indeed,  had  never  lost  heart ;  he  continued 
to  address  meetings  and  to  give  effect  to  "  agitation,"  a  word 
he  had  made  his  own  ;  but  the  "  Veto  "  had  greatly  weakened 
his  efforts;  and  not  to  speak  of  numbers  of  Liberal  Protestants, 
the  Catholic  nobles  and  gentry  held  aloof  from  him.  With  his 
singular  fertility  of  resource,  however,  he  formed,  at  last,  a 
plan  of  operations,  so  to  speak,  which  ere  long  combined  all 
Catholic  Ireland  into  an  overwhelming  popular  movement, 
and  made  Catholic  Emancipation  a  necessity  of  the  time. 
With  a  few  followers,  for  the  most  part  young  men  of  the 
gown,  he  created  in  1823  the  Catholic  Association,  a  League 
organised  on  a  very  different  model  from  the  Conventions  and 
the  Committees  of  the  past.  O'Connell  had  always  looked  to 
the  Catholic  priesthood ;  he  found  in  them  most  able  and 
eager  allies  in  furthering  the  great  combination  he  had  in  view. 
A  complete  change  had  passed  over  this  order  of  men,  since 
the  days  when  they  were  only  able  to  do  their  office  in  secrecy 
and  stealth  under  the  Penal  Code ;  and  when,  trained  as  they 
usually  had  been  under  the  old  Church  of  France,  they  had 
acquired  habits  of  slavish  respect  for  authority.  The  Irish 
Parliament  had  given  them  the  College  of  Maynooth ;  as 
Wolfe  Tone  had  predicted,  their  education  at  this  place  had 
inspired  them  with  strong  Irish  sympathies ;  they  were  chiefly 
drawn  from  the  ranks  of  the  higher  peasantry ;  and  they  had 
no  liking  for  British  rule  in  Ireland,  or  for  the  rights  of  Irish 
Protestant  landlords.  They  were,  in  fact,  animated  by  the 
spirit  of  the  old  Confederates  of  1643;  ^.nd  their  Church, 
besides,  had  become  a  real  power  in  the  State,  spreading  its 
fine  edifices  far  and  wide,  very  different  from  the  miserable 
chapels  of  a  century  before.  O'Connell  had  soon  drawn  the 
priesthood  to  him;  but  the  problem  was  how  to  make  their 
influence  tell  decisively  on  the  Catholic  masses,  and  to  attract 

20 — 2 


3o8  Ireland.  [Chap. 

these  in  full  strength  towards  the  cause.  To  attain  this  object 
the  priests  were  engaged  to  appeal  to  their  flocks  in  every  parish, 
to  make  Catholic  Emancipation  an  article  of  faith,  to  unite  all 
Catholics  in  the  demand  in  the  name  of  religion.  But 
O'Connell  felt  that  this  was  not  enough  :  a  social  movement 
was  to  sustain  the  political ;  and  general  and  earnest  efforts 
were  to  be  made  to  redress  or  to  mitigate  the  wrongs  of  the 
Catliolic  peasantry.  For  this  purpose  a  fund  was  to  be  raised 
by  subscriptions,  however  small,  from  every  part  of  Ireland ; 
and  the  Catholic  Association,  backed  by  a  popular  Press,  and 
working,  through  its  societies,  in  every  county,  was  to  leave 
nothing  undone  to  expose  acts  of  injustice,  to  defeat  the 
process  of  ejectment  in  the  Courts  of  Law,  to  protect,  by  all 
means  in  its  power,  the  Catholic  occupier  of  the  soil. 

The  movement,  inaugurated  in  this  way,  went  on  with 
extraordinary  force  and  speed.  O'Connell  proved  a  tower  of 
strength  in  himself;  his  energy,  his  daring,  his  masterly  skill  in 
combining  arrangements,  in  thwarting  the  attempts  of  officials 
eager  to  bring  him  within  the  meshes  of  the  law,  and  in 
winning  the  hearts  of  thousands  by  his  stirring  appeals,  had 
effects  that  quickly  became  manifest.  Yet  the  priesthood 
played,  perhaps,  a  more  striking  part ;  their  immense  spiritual 
authority  was  everywhere  employed  to  extend  what  was 
preached  as  a  kind  of  crusade ;  and  the  Catholic  Association 
had,  in  a  few  months,  active  centres  in  every  part  of  Ireland 
drawing  into  their  midst  the  humbler  Catholics  to  a  man.  All 
Catholic  Ireland  felt  the  impulse ;  the  aristocratic  classes, 
lukewarm  before,  felt  inspired  by  a  great  Tribune  with 
sudden  confidence ;  the  universal  support  the  movement 
obtained  was  seen  in  the  vast  sum  of  the  "Catholic  Rent,"  the 
penny  contributions  of  distressed  millions.  Not  the  least 
potent  of  the  influences  that  gained  the  people  were,  as 
O'Connell  had  foreseen,  the  successful  efforts  made  to  defend 
the  peasantry  from  acts  of  wrong :  bad  landlords  were  bafiled 


IX.]        From  the   Union  to  CatJiolic  Emancipation,       309 

by  ingenious  lawyers,  or  denounced  by  village  orators  and  in 
county  newspapers;  Orangeism  on  the  Bench  was  unmasked 
and  condemned  ;  and  in  this  way  evictions  were  very  largely 
checked,  and  instances  of  oppression  made  less  common. 
The  most  significant  feature  of  the  whole  movement  was  this : 
the  passions  of  great  bodies  of  men  had  been  aroused;  but 
O'Connell  and  the  priesthood  held  them  in  the  leash;  Catholic 
Ireland  obeyed  its  leader's  command,  ''shed  not  a  drop  of 
blood,  it  will  only  help  the  enemy'";  and  at  his  bidding 
agrarian  disorder  and  crime,  before  rampant,  almost  dis- 
appeared. Prosecutions  of  O'Connell  proved  idle  as  the  wind; 
an  Act  specially  passed  to  put  the  Association  down  was 
eluded  as  usual,  and  made  impotent.  Canning  said,  with 
truth,  that  within  two  years,  an  "  Imperium  in  Imperio "  had 
been  formed  in  Ireland,  more  powerful  than  the  State,  and 
more  generally  obeyed.  Yet,  at  this  conjuncture,  when  it 
seemed  probable,  that  he  could  secure  emancipation  almost  on 
his  own  terms,  O'Connell  gave  a  signal  proof  of  the  spirit  of 
compromise,  which  was  one  of  his  distinctive  qualities.  A 
Bill,  drawn  it  is  beHeved  by  his  hand,  and  conceding  most  of 
the  Catholic  claims,  passed  the  House  of  Commons  in  1825  ; 
but  it  was  accompanied  by  what  were  known  as  its  "  wings," 
proposals  to  make  a  provision  for  the  Irish  Catholic  clergy, 
and  for  disfranchising  the  peasant  masses — the  "  forty  shilling 
freeholders"  before  referred  to — for  their  power,  it  was  per- 
ceived, might  become  dangerous.  O'Connell  assented  to  these 
measures,   though,  hitherto,  he  had  been  opposed   to  them ; 


1  "The  red  right  hand  of  God's  avenging  justice,"  said  O'Connell  in  o 
one  of  his  harangues  to  the  peasantry,  "hangs  over  the  land  of  the 
murderer."  Compare  this  with  Parnell's  cynical  phrase,  "crime  is  un- 
necessary"; and  compare  the  attitude  of  the  Catholic  Association,  with  the 
Reign  of  Terror  promoted  by  the  Land  and  the  National  Leagues  of  late 
years. 


f= 


aol 


310  Ireland.  [Chap. 

but  the  whole  scheme  was  rejected  by  the  House  of  Lords, 
one  of  the  most  unfortunate  decisions  that  was  ever  made. 

The  fate  of  these  measures,  which,  had  they  passed,  might 
have  changed  the  character  of  subsequent  Irish  History,  only 
urged  O'Connell  to  redoubled  efforts.  With  much  adroitness 
he  appealed  to  the  English  Dissenters,  announcing  that  he  was 
fighting  their  cause — the  Repeal  of  the  Test  Act  was  at 
hand;  he  sought  aid  from  the  Irish  emigrants,  already 
numerous,  in  the  United  States ;  he  made  a  profound  im- 
pression on  Catholic  France,  some  of  whose  leading  men 
openly  expressed  their  sympathy.  Meanwhile  the  agitation  at 
home  became  more  formidable  and  irresistible  week  after 
week  ;  and  by  the  close  of  1827  the  Association  had  not  only 
become  the  dominant  force  in  Irish  affairs,  but  was  enabled 
successfully  to  defy  the  Government.  The  ascendency  of 
O'Connell  was,  in  fact,  complete  ;  many  circumstances  had 
concurred  to  extend  his  influence  and  to  urge  the  Catholic 
Question  forward.  He  had  called,  not  in  vain,  on  the  Liberal 
Irish  Protestants,  the  sons  of  the  adherents  of  Grattan  in  the 
Irish  Parliament ;  they  had  zealously  advocated  the  Catholic 
claims ;  with  their  assistance  he  had  wrested  several  seats  from 
the  Ascendency  party  at  the  General  Election  of  1826.  Lord 
Wellesley,  too,  a  real  and  far-seeing  statesman,  had  been 
Viceroy  since  182 1 ;  he  not  only  favoured  the  Catholic  cause, 
but  pronounced  for  more  than  one  of  the  social  reforms  whicii 
Peel  and  others  had  deemed  impossible ;  and  he  had  set  his 
face  steadily  throughout  the  country  against  Orangeism  and 
its  violent  partisans,  who  kicked  fiercely,  but  to  no  purpose, 
against  the  pricks,  by  public  meetings,  wild  clamour,  and 
even  riots. 

The  occasion  ere  long  came  which  suddenly  brought  to  a 
head  a  crisis  evidently  for  some  time  impending.  Mr  Vesey 
Fitzgerald  accepted  office  in  the  Wellington  Administration  in 
1828;    he  was  obliged  to  seek  re-election  for  the  County  of 


IX.]       From  the  Union  to  Catholic  Emancipation.      3 1 1 

Clare.  He  was  an  amiable,  enlightened,  and  able  man  ;  his 
father  had  been  an  ally  of  Grattan's  ;  Catholic  Emancipation 
had  no  more  loyal  friend.  But  the  time  had  come  for  a  trial 
of  strength  between  the  Association  and  the  forces  opposed  to 
it;  O'Connell,  though  with  reluctance,  resolved  to  stand 
against  Fitzgerald  for  the  representation  of  Clare,  though  as  a 
Catholic  he  could  not  enter  Parliament.  The  contest  that 
followed  is  not  yet  forgotten ;  it  marked  a  turn  in  the  course 
of  Irish  history.  The  landed  gentry  of  the  county  took  the 
side  of  Fitzgerald  to  a  man ;  they  canvassed  for  him  with 
assiduous  zeal,  for  they  resented,  not  unreasonably,  what  they 
thought  the  intrusion  of  a  stranger  backed  by  a  dictatorial 
League ;  they  called  upon  their  submissive  dependents  for 
their  votes;  they  never  doubted  but  that,  as  had  been  their 
wont,  these  vassals  would  flock  to  the  poll  for  their  candidate. 
But  a  moral  change  had  passed  over  the  Irish  peasant;  the 
word  of  the  Association  had  gone  forth ;  the  "  Liberator's " 
influence  swept  opposition  away ;  the  priests  of  Clare  pro- 
claimed from  a  hundred  altars  that  the  struggle  was  one  for 
the  faith  of  God ;  the  forty  shilling  freeholders  broke  away,  in 
one  mass,  from  their  lords  ;  and  O'Connell  was  returned  in  an 
easy  triumph. 

A  Revolution  in  Ireland  seemed  now  at  hand  ;  the  Catholic 
Association  ruled  five-sixths  of  the  island ;  it  was  clearly 
perceived  that  the  great  body  of  the  peasantry  would  not  obey 
their  superiors,  and  was  eager  to  follow  the  example  set  by 
Clare.  Opinion  in  Ireland,  too,  there  can  be  little  doubt,  had 
even  among  the  chief  part  of  the  Protestants  inclined  for  some 
time  towards  the  Catholic  claims  ;  an  immense  meeting  of  the 
landed  gentry  had  declared  for  them ;  their  opponents  for  the 
most  part  were  Orangemen  and  their  partisans.  The  repre- 
sentatives of  Ireland,  indeed,  did  not  fully  reflect  this  sentiment 
in  the  Imperial  Parliament ;  but  though  in  numbers  they  were 
quite  sufficient,  they  were  largely  composed  of  Tory  nominees, 


312  Ireland.  [Chap. 

and  of  men  from  Ulster  of  extreme  Protestant  views ;  the 
Liberal  party,  if  very  able,  was  relatively  small.  Peel  and 
Wellington  however  saw  that  the  time  had  come  when 
Catholic  Emancipation  could  no  longer  be  deferred;  after  a 
show  of  opposition  on  the  part  of  the  King,  Parliament  gave 
its  assent  in  1S29  to  a  measure  of  relief  which  ought  to  have 
been  an  essential  part  of  the  Union  a  generation  before,  and 
which — though  probably,  in  any  case,  it  could  not  have  been 
very  long  delayed — was  actually  obtained  by  an  agitation 
which  had  convulsed  Ireland,  and  had  made  too  evident  the 
weakness  of  British  rule.  The  galling  disabilities  of  the  Irish 
Catholics,  left  existing  under  the  Act  of  1793,  were  finally 
removed  by  this  concession  ;  and  Catholic  Ireland  was,  for  the 
first  time,  admitted  fully  within  the  pale  of  the  State,  and,  with 
scarcely  an  exception,  was  placed  on  a  level  of  political  rights 
with  Protestant  Ireland.  The  full  policy  which  Pitt  had  contem- 
plated was  not,  however,  carried  out ;  no  provision  was  made 
for  the  Irish  Catholic  clergy  ;  above  all  there  was  no  com- 
mutation of  the  tithe.  The  boon  of  Emancipation,  too,  was 
grudgingly  given  ;  Peel  and  Wellington  yielded  with  bad  grace; 
O'Connell  was  not  permitted  to  take  the  seat  he  had  won ;  he 
was  not  even  raised  to  the  rank  of  King's  Counsel,  to  which 
he  had  been  made  eligible  by  the  late  measure.  And  if,  as  is 
most  probable,  it  had  become  necessary  to  disfranchise  the 
^'  forty-shilling  freeholders,  and  to  deprive  masses  of  the  peasants 
of  votes  unwisely  given  them  many  years  before,  this  was  an 
unfortunate  accompaniment  of  a  remedial  policy ;  it  bore  too 
much  the  look  of  angry  revenge. 

Catholic  Emancipation  was  a  measure  of  justice;  it  was 
certainly  attended  with  good  results.  A  Revolution  in  Ireland 
was  perhaps  stayed  by  it ;  it  may  have  made  Irish  agitation 
less  violent  and  dangerous  than  it  would  have  been  othenvise; 
it  contributed  to  some  important  reforms.  But  it  was  a 
measure  of  justice  far  too  long  delayed  ;  and  evil  consequences 


ix.l       From  the  Union  to  Catholic  Emancipation.      313 

have  flowed  from  it,  not  only  for  Ireland,  but  for  the  whole 
Empire.  Time  was  soon  to  show  how  unfortunate  it  was  that 
it  was  not  accompanied  by  an  endowment  for  the  Irish  Catholic 
priesthood,  and  that  the  Anglican  Church  in  Ireland  was 
allowed  to  retain  the  wrongful  and  oppressive  claim  to  an 
uncommuted  tithe.  But  worse  and  more  permanent  ills 
followed :  Catholic  Emancipation,  extorted  as  it  was,  added  to 
the  discord  of  race  and  faith  in  Ireland ;  the  agitation  through 
which  O'Connell  triumphed  deprived  property  of  its  legitimate 
influence,  broke  up  the  structure  of  Irish  society,  made  ruins, 
but  put  nothing  in  their  place.  It  increased  the  aversion  to 
British  rule  and  law,  inherited  by  the  peasantry  through  ages 
of  wrongs ;  it  made  them  dangerously  conscious  of  their 
power.  It  also  enthroned  faction  in  the  Imperial  Parliament, 
to  which  statesmen  have  often  most  unwisely  yielded ;  it  has 
tended  to  make  the  Irish  representation  a  reproach  and  a 
byeword.  Above  all  it  gave  immense  authority  in  the  State  to 
a  mass  of  ignorant  and  extreme  opinion,  not  tempered  by 
middle  class  ideas,  swayed  by  sacerdotal  or  worse  influence, 
and  often  extravagant  and  unjust ;  and  this  has  repeatedly  had 
disastrous  effects,  not  only  in  purely  Irish  affairs,  but  on  the 
course  of  the  national  policy. 

There  is  much  in  the  conduct  of  affairs  in  Ireland,  from 
1800  to  1829,  which  impartial  history  regrets  and  condemns. 
The  Irish  Catholic  leaders  were  wronged;  Protestant  Ascen- 
dency secured  a  new  lease  of  power;  encouragement  to 
Orangeism  was  unwisely  given  ;  severe  measures  of  repression 
were  continued  too  long,  and  administered  in  a  reckless 
fashion ;  the  necessity  of  social  reforms  was  not  perceived, 
especially  in  the  sphere  of  landed  relations ;  a  bad  land  sys- 
tem was  made  worse  by  bad  laws ;  the  Catholic  Question  was 
put  back  for  years;  Catholic  Emancipation  was  too  late, 
was  ungracefully  conceded,  and  under  the  worst  conditions. 
The  train  of  evils  that  followed  has  been  made  manifest;  in 


314  Ireland.  [Chap. 

this  whole  course  of  policy  we  see  proof  of  prejudice  and 
narrow-mindedness  in  the  Imperial  Parliament,  and  of  ignor- 
ance and  want  of  sympathy  in  British  statesmen.  Yet  the 
circumstances  of  the  period  must  be  taken  into  account ;  it 
was  an  age  of  war,  reaction,  and  hard  Tory  ideas ;  if  Ireland 
had  cause  of  complaint,  England  had  cause  also ;  the  time 
was  unpropitious  to  test  the  Union  and  its  effects.  Nor  is 
there  any  reason  to  suppose  that  Grattan's  Parliament  would 
have  governed  Ireland  better,  or  even  nearly  as  well :  from 
1782  to  1789,  when  the  opportunity  really  offered,  it  set  its 
face  against  every  reform  in  Ireland;  its  measures  from  1795 
to  1799,  especially  during  the  rebellion  of  1798,  were  atrocious, 
and  marked  by  the  rage  of  a  dominant  caste.  It  is  a  most 
significant  fact — it  cannot  be  got  over — that,  from  i8oo  to 
1829,  there  was  no  movement  in  Ireland  against  the  Union, 
nothing  more  than  a  few  weak  protests ;  Grattan  accepted  the 
Union,  and  so  did  the  whole  Whig  party,  its  vehement  adver- 
saries in  1799-1800;  this  is  almost  a  conclusive  proof  that 
Ireland  was  more  contented  after  the  Union  than  she  had 
been  before.  On  the  other  hand,  notwithstanding  a  season  of 
terrible  distress,  Ireland  certainly  made  material  progress  in 
the  thirty  years  that  followed  the  Union  ;  above  all,  Protestant 
Ulster  became  devotedly  loyal,  having  previously  been  on  the 
verge  of  rebelHon ;  the  forces  of  Irish  disaffection  were  ex- 
tremely weakened ;  and  it  must  be  fairly  added  that  the  mind 
of  England  had,  however  slowly,  begun  to  turn  towards  Ireland. 
Looking  at  the  subject  from  an  Imperial  point  of  view,  the 
Union  may  have  saved  these  islands  from  conquest ;  a  single 
Parliament  and  a  centralised  Government  were  required  to 
conduct  the  war  with  Napoleon  ;  after  this  experience  England 
can  hardly  doubt  that  she  must  keep  Ireland  in  her  own 
hands. 

The  long  reign  of  Toryism,  and  of  reaction  in  the  State, 
was  about  to  pass  away  in  1829.     England,  strong,  masterful, 


IX.]       From  tJie  Union  to  Catholic  Emancipation.      3 1 5 

ruled  by  ideas  in  many  respects  inapplicable  to  Irish  affairs, 
was  entering  on  a  path  of  great  general  reform  ;  she  could  only 
attain  her  ends  through  Parliamentary  government,  and  the 
ascendency  of  the  party  of  progress.  Ireland  was  weak, 
divided,  infinitely  behind  Great  Britain ;  her  whole  social 
system  was  deeply  diseased,  especially  in  what  related  to  the 
land;  her  population  was  becoming  alarmingly  dense;  if  some 
of  her  grievances  were  fully  perceived,  others  were  less  intelli- 
gible to  English  statesmen.  And  her  Catholic  millions,  serfs 
for  ages,  untrained  to  freedom  and  self-government,  had  been 
suddenly  invested  with  power,  which  was  practically  in  the 
hands  of  a  great  demagogue,  and  of  a  priesthood  which  carried 
out  his  commands.  In  these  circumstances,  was  it  not  probable 
that  many  Irish  reforms  would  be  ill  conceived,  would  be 
delayed  and  injured  by  the  strife  and  the  spirit  of  party  ?  Was 
it  not  probable  that  Ireland  might  become  the  battle  ground 
of  contending  English  factions,  and,  in  the  result,  might  gravely 
suffer?  Was  it  not  probable  that  what  was  most  peccant  in 
the  structure  of  her  society  would  not  be  understood,  or  would 
be  understood  when  it  was  too  late,  and  that  immense  evils 
might  be  the  consequence,  even  though  much  had  been  done 
for  her  by  a  well-meaning  and  enlightened  policy?  And  might 
not  the  enfranchisement  of  Cathohc  Ireland,  as  affairs  stood, 
lead  to  extravagances  and  mischiefs  of  many  kinds,  injurious  to 
Great  Britain  and  Ireland  alike,  and  attended  with  numerous 
and  dangerous  ills?  Time  was  to  give  an  answer,  at  least  in 
part,  to  questions  even  yet  not  finally  answered. 


CHAPTER   X. 

FROM    1829   TO    1868. 

State  of  England  in  1832.  The  Irish  Reform  Act.  O'Connell  declares  for 
Repeal  of  the  Union.  Failure  of  the  movement.  The  Question  in  the 
House  of  Commons.  Great  speech  of  Peel.  The  war  against  Irish 
Tithe.  A  measure  of  commutation  passed  after  a  long  delay.  The 
Irish  Anglican  Church.  Partial  reform.  National  education  in  Ire- 
land. Vices  of  the  system.  The  Irish  Administration  of  the  Melbourne 
Government.  O'Connell  abandons  Repeal.  His  influence  in  the 
Government.  Drummond.  His  authority  in  Irish  affairs.  Extension 
of  the  Constabulary  force.  Orangeism  discountenanced.  Bureau- 
cratic rule  of  the  Castle.  The  Irish  Poor  Law.  The  Irish  Municipal 
Reform  Act.  The  second  administration  of  Peel.  O'Connell  and 
Repeal.  The  Monster  Meetings.  Trial  of  O'Connell.  His  release. 
The  Young  Ireland  Party.  Put  down  by  O'Connell  and  the  priest- 
hood. Significance  of  this.  The  increased  Maynooth  grant.  The 
Queen's  Colleges.  The  Devon  Commission.  The  Report.  The 
Famine,  1845,  1846,  1847.  Conduct  and  policy  of  Peel  and 
Russell  Governments.  World-wide  Charity.  The  rising  of  1848. 
Smith  O'Brien.  John  Finton  Lalor.  The  Irish  Exodus.  Immense 
results.  Visit  of  the  Queen  in  1 849.  The  Encumbered  Estates  Acts. 
Their  mischievous  effects.  Condition  of  Ireland  after  the  Famine. 
Optimism.  Superficial  prosperity.  Dangerous  symptoms.  State  of 
Irish  Letters.  Art  and  Science.  The  Fenian  rising  of  1867.  Re- 
flections.    Conclusion. 

The  agitation  for  Reform  in  1831-32  shook  society  in  England 
to  its  depths  ;  revohition,  perhaps,  was  only  averted  by  the 
good  sense  of  the  aristocracy,  and  of  a  well  ordered  people, 


Chap.  X.]  From   1829  to   1868.  317 

trained  for  centuries  in  self-government.  The  time,  both 
before  and  after  1832,  was  unpropitious  to  Irish  affairs;  the 
attention  of  British  statesmen  was  chiefly  directed  to  the 
condition  of  England,  and  of  our  foreign  relations.  The  Irish 
Reform  Act  added  a  few  members  to  the  Irish  representation 
in  the  House  of  Commons;  but  it  placed  the  franchise  on 
rather  a  hi^rh  level ;  and,  after  the  extinction  of  the  forty-  ^ 
shilling  freeholds,  it  was  supposed  that  the  Catholic  masses 
would  lose  much  of  their  power.  The  first  part  of  Lord  Grey's 
Ministry  was  chiefly  remarkable,  as  respects  Ireland,  for  a 
strenuous  but  unsuccessful  effort  made  by  O'Connell  to  arouse 
popular  feeling  against  what  he  called  "  the  accursed  Union." 
He  may  have  clung  to  the  faith  of  his  youth,  and  thought  the 
measure  a  disastrous  event;  but  personal  motives  certainly 
concurred ;  he  had  resented  the  petty  afi'ronts  of  1829  ;  he  had 
supported  the  administration  at  the  crisis  of  Reform  with  great 
ability  and  important  results ;  yet  he  found  himself  excluded 
from  office  in  the  State,  nay  the  Emancipation  Act  made  a 
dead  letter,  as  regards  the  demands  of  Catholic  Ireland.  His 
agitation  for  Repeal,  however,  completely  failed,  though  he 
had  drawn  into  the  House  of  Commons  a  train  of  followers, 
nominees  of  his  own  and  of  the  Catholic  priesthood,  a  number  • 
that  was  soon  to  increase ;  it  v/as  notable  chiefly  for  his 
characteristic  baffling  of  the  law,  and  his  savage  quarrels  with 
Mr  Stanley,  the  Chief  Secretary.  He  brought  the  subject 
before  the  House  of  Commons  in  1834;  but  he  gained  the 
vote  of  only  a  single  EngHsh  member ;  the  occasion  was  most 
worthy  of  notice  for  the  conclusive  proof  afforded  in  the 
debate  that  the  wealth  of  Ireland,  faulty  as  was  the  state  of  her 
social  life,  had  been  steadily  on  the  increase.  The  speech  of 
Peel  was  perhaps  the  ablest  defence  of  the  Union  ever  made 
in  the  Imperial  Parliament ;  and  O'Connell — the  fact  is  of 
great  significance — let  the  question  drop  for  a  series  of  years. 
At  this  period,  indeed,  the  mind  of  Catholic  Ireland  had 


3i8  Ireland.  [Chap. 

been  concentrated  on  a  very  different  matter;  a  wild  move- 
ment attended  by  a  frightful  outbreak  of  crime  had  been 
sweeping  over  large  parts  of  the  country.  As  we  have  seen, 
the  Anglican  Church  had  retained  its  tithe ;  the  commutation, 
advocated  by  Pitt  and  Grattan  half  a  century  before,  had  not 
been  carried  out;  a  feeble  attempt  in  that  direction,  recently 
made,  had  practically  had  hardly  any  results.  As  the  popula- 
tion of  Ireland  increased  and  the  land  became  more  and  more 
divided  into  little  tillage  holdings,  the  grievance  of  the  impost 
was  more  acutely  felt ;  it  was  in  fact  a  gross  wrong,  which  the 
Catholic  occupier  of  the  soil,  made  aware  of  his  power  by  the 
events  of  late  years,  could  not  be  expected  patiently  to  endure. 
The  collection  of  the  tithe,  too,  had  for  some  time  been  made 
more  onerous,  in  not  a  few  instances,  by  Protestant  clergymen 
of  extreme  views ;  and  Orange  faction  had  given  them  sinister 
support.  O'Connell  pronounced  against  tithe,  with  no  uncer- 
tain voice;  the  Catholic  priesthood,  angry  perhaps  that  the 
State  had  made  no  provision  for  them,  came  again  enthusiasti- 
cally to  his  aid ;  the  power  of  the  Catholic  Association,  though 
nominally  suppressed,  was  arrayed  to  some  extent  on  behalf  of 
the  new  cause.  It  should  be  observed  however  that,  on  this 
occasion,  O'Connell  and  his  satellites  were  not  able  to  keep 
the  forces  of  disorder  down,  as  had  been  the  case  from  1823 
to  1829;  indeed  O'Connell  made  scarcely  an  attempt  of  the 
kind.  The  Catholic  peasantry  took  the  matter  into  their  own 
hands  ;  the  payment  of  tithes  was  resisted  in  many  counties ; 
the  efforts  of  the  law  and  of  a  strong  government  proved 
utterly  unable  to  enforce  payment.  The  Tithe  War,  as  it  was 
not  improperly  called,  raged  with  little  intermission  for  several 
years ;  and  in  two  or  three  places  bloody  encounters  occurred 
between  the  Constabulary  and  the  half-armed  levies  they  met. 
But  these  were  not  the  worst  symptoms ;  the  crusade  against 
Tithe  was  backed  by  the  Whiteboy  system,  at  times  quiescent, 
but  never  defunct ;  and  the  machinery  of  that  organisation  of 


X.]  From   1829  to  1868.  319 

crime  was  put  in  force  to  uphold  the  movement.  Secret 
societies,  spreading  far  and  wide,  sent  forth  their  mandates; 
assassinations  and  deeds  of  outrage  rapidly  multiphed ;  and 
the  arm  of  the  law  was  paralysed,  in  whole  districts,  by 
intimidation  and  the  refusal  of  juries  to  convict.  In  1833, 
there  were  9000  cases  of  crimes  of  this  type ;  political  agitation 
had  again  been  sustained  by  agrarian  trouble. 

A  measure  of  repression,  the  most  severe  perhaps  of  any 
enacted  in  Irish  affairs,  was  passed  to  put  down  this  frightful 
state  of  things;  it  was  opposed  by  O'Connell  with  great  power 
and  skill,  and,  indeed,  proved  the  forerunner  of  events  that  led 
to  the  fall  of  the  Grey  Cabinet ;  but  it  was  completely  success- 
ful in  its  immediate  object;  the  reign  of  criminal  anarchy  soon 
came  to  an  end.  The  wrong  of  the  Tithe,  however,  was  at  last 
recognised,  unhappily  owing  to  the  effects  of  a  social  conflict ; 
and  measures  were  adopted  to  redress  a  grievance,  which 
ought  not  to  have  lasted  down  to  the  nineteenth  century. 
Incidents  followed  that  showed,  only  too  plainly,  how  a 
reform  for  Ireland,  in  itself  well  designed,  might  be  delayed 
for  years,  in  the  existing  state  of  politics,  and  be  made  into  a 
pretext  for  the  mere  strife  of  faction.  The  question  of  the 
tithe  was  mixed  with  the  question  of  appropriating  to  the  use 
of  the  State  part  of  the  excessive  revenue  of  the  Established 
Church  in  Ireland ;  this  caused  the  resignation  of  Mr  Stanley 
in  1834;  and  a  Bill  proposed  by  Peel,  in  his  first  short 
Ministry,  for  the  simple  Commutation  of  the  Irish  Tithe, 
was  defeated  by  the  Whig  opposition  of  the  day,  because 
the  principle  of  appropriation  was  not  found  in  it.  When 
this  party  move  had  driven  Peel  from  office,  the  two  questions 
were  again  combined  by  the  Government  of  Lord  Melbourne 
in  1836;  but  the  policy  of  appropriation  was  rejected  by  the 
House  of  Lords ;  and  ultimately  the  Melbourne  Ministry  gave 
it  up.  A  measure  for  the  Commutation  of  the  tithe  alone, 
the  famous  "  Appropriation  Clause  "  being  left  out,  was  passed 


320  Ireland.  [Chap. 

by  Parliament  in  1S38 ;  and  justice  in  this  matter  was  done  to 
Ireland,  but  justice  deferred  too  long,  and  after  disastrous 
events.  The  reform  effected,  nevertheless,  was  excellent  and 
wise;  the  tithe  was  commuted  into  a  rent  charge,  a  quarter 
less  in  amount  than  the  total  impost ;  the  owners  of  land,  and 
not  its  occupants,  were  rendered  liable  to  the  payment  of  the 
substituted  charge.  By  these  means  the  Irish  Catholic 
peasantry  were  relieved  from  a  most  odious  tribute  to  an 
alien  Church ;  complaints  on  this  subject  were  never  heard 
again ;  the  Irish  Established  Church,  in  fact,  obtained  a  new 
lease  of  existence. 

The  position,  however,  of  that  Church  had  attracted  atten- 
tion, long  before  this  time,  especially  among  English  Liberal 
statesmen.  Superficially  it  had  undergone  considerable  change, 
since  we  have  seen  what  it  was  in  the  eighteenth  century.  It 
had  been  graced  by  some  very  able  Divines,  if  by  no  prelate 
who  can  be  named  with  Berkeley ;  it  had  been  almost  com- 
pletely freed  from  the  moral  scandals  v/hich  had  been  its 
reproach ;  its  ministers,  as  a  class,  were  good  and  amiable 
men,  in  many  cases  worthy  country  gentlemen.  Its  discipHne, 
too,  had  been  greatly  improved;  it  had  felt,  through  all  its 
parts,  the  beneficent  influence  of  the  religious  opinion  of  the 
nineteenth  century,  requiring,  as  it  did,  a  high  standard  of 
clerical  duty.  But  its  essential  nature  had  remained  the  same; 
it  was  still  the  institution  of  a  conquering  race  planted  in  the 
midst  of  a  conquered  people,  a  spiritual,  but  a  hostile,  watch- 
tower;  it  possessed  great  revenues  to  little  purpose;  it  was 
"a  lodge  in  a  garden  of  cucumbers,"  that  bore  no  fruit;  it  had 
not  much  authority  over  its  own  flocks ;  it  was  an  object  of 
hatred  to  the  Catholic  priesthood,  and  of  the  fierce  detestation 
of  the  Catholic  peasant  as  long  as  it  continued  to  exact  tithe. 
Through  the  effects,  besides,  of  the  Evangelical  English  move- 
ment, it  had  become  somewhat  rudely  proselytising  of  late; 
and  yet  as  a  Church  it  had  not  fulfilled  its  mission  ;  it  was  no 


X.]  Front   1829  to  1868.  321 

living  image  of  its  Divine  Master ;  its  high  places  were  filled 
with  sons  of  the  great  landed  gentry,  who  looked  to  the  Castle 
rather  than  to  Heaven ;  and  its  revenues  had  been  misapplied 
and  wasted.  No  wonder  then  that,  in  183 1-2,  it  became  the 
object  of  persistent  attack ;  but  the  Liberal  opinion  of  that  day 
never  contemplated  Disestablishment  in  any  sense;  it  aimed 
only  at  a  reform  of  the  Church;  as  it  was,  indeed,  this  so-called 
sacrilege  was  the  origin  of  the  great  Oxford  Tractarian  move- 
ment. The  Irish  Establishment  was  deprived  of  ten  sees,  and 
its  revenues  were  redistributed,  to  some  extent,  in  order  to 
make  it  more  efficient,  by  a  measure  which  passed,  with  little 
difficulty,  in  1833,  the  principle  of  appropriation  not  being 
pressed ;  and  this,  and  the  far  greater  measure,  commuting 
the  tithe,  were  the  only  changes  attempted  for  a  long  series  of 
years.  The  maintenance  of  the  Anglican  Church  in  Ireland 
had,  indeed,  we  have  seen,  been  made  a  part  of  the  Union ; 
but  though  the  compact  was  respected  for  more  than  half  a 
century,  the  end  of  the  institution  came  at  last,  as  had  been 
foreseen  by  most  thoughtful  minds.  To  describe  the  process 
is  not  within  our  limits;  Disestablishment,  we  shall  only 
remark,  was  not  accompanied,  as  it  ought  to  have  been,  by  the 
provision  for  the  Irish  Catholic  priesthood,  which  Pitt,  Grattan, 
and  many  of  their  best  successors  in  England  and  Ireland  had 
always  had  in  view. 

Another  important  measure  of  reform  for  Ireland  was 
carried  into  effect  by  Lord  Grey's  Government  (1830-34).  The 
"  English  Schools  "  of  the  Tudor  period,  made  appendages  of 
the  Established  Church,  had  disappeared  into  the  night  of  the 
past;  the  Charter  Schools,  worthy  of  the  Penal  Code,  main- 
tained an  existence  only  in  name.  Peel  had  appointed  a 
Commission,  in  181 2,  to  consider  Irish  Education  of  the 
primary  kind;  but  its  labours  had,  virtually,  had  no  results; 
and  Irish  Primary  Education,  as  to  the  work  of  the  State,  had 
fallen   into    the  hands  of  a  Society,   not  without  merit,  but 

M.   I.  21 


322  Ireland.  [Chap. 

Protestant  in  its  complexion,  and  disposed  to  make  proselytes. 
Catholic  Ireland  justly  resented  this :  and,  meanwhile,  the 
children  of  the  dense  Catholic  masses  grew  up,  to  a  great 
extent,  in  ignorance,  though,  be  it  said  to  their  parents'  honour, 
petty  or  ''hedge"  schools  had  been  set  up  at  their  expense  in 
many  places,  and  had  thousands  of  scholars.  Mr  Stanley 
established  in  Ireland,  in  183 1-4,  the  system  of  Primary 
Education  long  known  as  National ;  it  was  founded  on 
principles  in  accord  with  the  rather  shallow  Liberal  ideas  of 
the  day.  The  children  of  the  humbler  classes  were  to  be 
instructed  in  schools  of  the  State ;  for  secular  education  they 
were  to  be  taught  together;  they  were  to  receive  religious 
education  apart,  from  pastors  of  their  respective  communions. 
This  system,  largely  modified  indeed,  has  been  in  existence  for 
more  than  sixty  years ;  Parliament  has  lavished  enormous  free 
grants  upon  it ;  and  unquestionably  it  has  had  a  large  measure 
of  success,  for  the  children  of  a  people  that  sat  in  darkness 
have  had  their  eyes  opened  to  the  light  of  knowledge.  But  the 
instruction  afforded  has  not  been  very  good ;  except  in  parts  of 
Ulster  it  is  not  popular;  the  principle  on  which  it  rests  was 
never  accepted  by  the  clergy  of  the  Irish  Anglican  Church ;  it 
is  secretly  disliked  by  the  Catholic  priesthood ;  it  is  not  in 
harmony  with  the  convictions  of  five-sixths  of  the  Irish 
community.  It  is,  in  fact,  a  principle  which  degrades  spiritual 
things,  and  makes  them  secondary,  so  to  speak,  to  temporal ; 
it  sacrifices  the  Divine  to  the  human ;  it  shocks  the  religious, 
if  you  will,  the  superstitious  conscience.  After  years  of  con- 
tention and  angry  bickering,  the  system  actually  in  force  at 
present,  is  this  :  the  principle  of  "  united  secular  education,  and 
separate  religious  education  "  has  been  tacitly  giv^en  up  in  niost 
places;  and  of  the  thousands  of  National  Schools  in  Ireland, 
the  great  majority  are  of  a  sectarian  character,  that  is,  the 
scholars  are  all  Catholics  or  all  Protestants.  But  the  system 
is  still  pervaded  by  the  original  principle : — the  schools  are 


X.]  From  1829  to  1868.  323 

sectarian  with  a  conscience  clause,  as  it  is  called ;  the  Bible  p 
cannot  be  read  in  a  Protestant  school ;  in  a  Catholic  school 
there  can  be  no  Catholic  emblem.  The  immense  majority  of 
the  Irish  people  will  never  approve  of  this  state  of  things  at 
heart,  though  it  has  found  favour  in  the  sight  of  Presbyterian 
Ireland'. 

O'Connell's  attitude  to  the  Ministry  of  Lord  Grey  had  been 
repeatedly  one  of  fierce  hostility;  and  this  had  contributed, 
with  other  causes,  to  retard  the  march  of  reforms  in  Ireland. 
The  situation  had  changed  when  Lord  Melbourne  came  into 
office  (1835);  his  Government  was  weak  in  England  and  Scot- 
land; but  O'Connell's  following,  known  as  his  "Tail,"  had  grown 
into  very  large  proportions  ;  and  the  Minister  sought  the  great 
Irishman's  support.  A  compact  angrily  denounced  at  the 
time,  but  hardly  to  be  condemned  by  History,  was  made 
between  the  Whigs  and  O'Connell;  its  terms  were  of  most 
marked  significance.  The  Government  placed  the  lion's  share 
of  Irish  patronage  in  O'Connell's  hands,  and  undertook  to 
further  Irish  reforms ;  O'Connell  in  turn  gave  them  the 
numerous  votes  at  his  command,  and  formally  abandoned  the 
demand  for  Repeal,  a  circumstance  that  must  be  borne  in  mind 
in  considering  his  conduct  as  respects  the  Union.  The  period 
that  followed  was,  on  the  whole,  one  of  just  and  enlightened 
rule  in  Ireland,  and  of  legislation  on  the  side  of  progress,  if 
this  was  somewhat  feeble,  and  not  marked  by  peculiar  insight. 
O'Connell  did  not  abuse  his  trust ;  the  appointments  he  prac- 
tically made  were  nearly  always  good,  especially  his  appoint- 
ments to  places  at  the  Bar ;  he  gave  proof  of  discernment,  fair 
play,  and  a  sincere  regard  for  the  maintenance  of  the  just 

^  Burke,  the  deepest  of  political  thinkers,  especially  on  Irish  affairs,  has 
over  and  over  again  insisted  that  education  in  Ireland  should  be,  above  all 
things,  religious.  He  would  have  condemned  the  principle  of  the  National 
system.  Ireland,  as  a  whole,  would  wish  Primary  Education  to  be  Avhat  is 
called  Denominational. 

21 2 


324  Ireland.  [Chap. 

rights  of  property,  in  the  great  but  difficult  position  which  he 
held.  It  may  be  said  of  him  that  Protestant  Ireland  had  little 
reason  to  complain  of  his  acts,  and  that  Catholic  Emancipation 
was  made,  for  the  first  time,  a  reaUty  by  him  in  Irish  affairs ; 
this  was  certainly  one  of  the  best  episodes  in  his  career.  In 
this  policy  he  was  loyally  upheld  by  Lord  Mulgrave,  the  Lord 
Lieutenant,  and  by  the  Chief  Secretary,  Lord  Morpeth ;  and  he 
had  the  assistance  of  Catholic  law  officers  of  great  powers, 
who  did  much  to  make  Irish  administration  equal  and  just, 
without  regard  to  distinctions  of  race  and  faith. 

The  Under-Secretary  Drummond,  too,  played  a  conspicuous 
part  at  the  Castle,  in  these  years,  though  his  influence  on  events, 
great  as  it  certainly  was,  has  been  somewhat  unduly  magnified, 
and  its  effects  have  not  been  in  all  respects  beneficent. 
Drummond  was  a  Scotchman  of  fine  parts  and  of  an  iron  will, 
in  his  views  rather  a  hard  doctrinaire,  but  able  and  gifted  with 
the  faculty  of  command.  His  conception  of  the  true  policy 
for  Ireland  was,  to  make  the  supremacy  of  a  just  administra- 
tion universally  felt;  to  hold  the  balance  even  between 
contending  factions  and  sects;  to  do  right  to  Protestant  and 
Catholic  alike ;  and,  in  order  to  further  these  great  objects,  to 
extend  and  strengthen  the  power  of  the  central  government. 
Much  that  he  accomplished  deserves  high  praise,  if  his  conduct 
was  not  always  right  or  judicious.  His  authority  was  soon  felt 
by  the  men  in  power ;  and  in  conjunction  with  them  he 
laboured,  with  success,  to  give  Catholic  Emancipation  real 
effect,  to  make  the  Irish  Catholic  feel  that  the  State  was  his 
friend,  to  keep  Protestant  ascendency,  and  its  excesses,  under. 
He  struck  a  blow  at  Orangeism,  its  adherents,  and  its  evil 
works,  which  may  be  said  to  have  been  almost  fatal ;  the 
organisation  and  influence  of  that  bad  system,  of  lawless  as- 
sociation, have  never  since  been  so  strong.  Yet  Drummond, 
unquestionably,  was  too  disposed  to  identify  the  great  body  of 
the  Irish  landed  gentry  with  Protestant  ascendency  in  a  bad 


X.]  From  1829  to   1868.  325 

sense ;  his  frequent  lectures  to  them  were  not  wise;  he  was  not 
just  to  the  order,  as  a  whole,  especially  to  its  more  prominent 
members.  The  principal  achievement,  however,  of  this  re- 
markable man  was  to  make  a  large  increase  in  the  Constabulary- 
force  established  by  Peel  many  years  before,  and  to  extend  the 
arrangements  for  paid  magistrates ;  and  he  set  the  system,  in 
part,  on  a  new  footing,  by  throwing  the  appointments  largely 
open  to  Catholics.  By  these  means  Ireland  was  virtually  placed 
under  the  control  of  a  highly  organised  police,  possessing 
immense  authority  and  administrative  powers;  and  this  de- 
velopment of  Peel's  policy  has  had,  but  to  greater  extent,  the 
effects  it  produced  from  the  first.  The  Constabulary  force  and 
the  paid  magistrates  have  done  wonders  in  maintaining  order, 
and  in  keeping  lawlessness  of  all  kinds  down ;  the  system  has 
gained  the  confidence  of  all  classes ;  it  is  not  too  much  to  say 
that  it  has  held  up  to  Irishmen  the  example  of  a  high  standard 
of  well  performed  duty,  the  value  of  which  has  been  very  great. 
Yet  disadvantages  are  to  be  set  against  this :  the  system,  as, 
indeed,  was  Drummond's  object,  has  enormously  increased 
the  power  of  the  Castle ;  but,  in  combination  with  other 
causes,  it  has  greatly  diminished  the  influence  of  the  Irish 
landed  gentry,  and  this  has  been,  on  the  whole,  unfortunate. 
It  has  tended  to  strengthen  in  Ireland  "  the  English  interest," 
and  to  make  the  Central  Government,  more  and  more,  what  it 
has  always  been,  a  bureaucratic  regime. 

The  Melbourne  Government  deserves  the  credit  of  settling 
the  great  Question  of  the  Tithe  in  Ireland  (1838).  Its  leaders 
however,  like  almost  all  the  English  statesmen  of  that 
generation,  did  not  attempt  to  apply  a  remedy  to  the  grave 
evils  of  Irish  landed  relations ;  they  were  certainly  not  fully 
alive  to  them.  These  relations  had,  in  some  respects,  im- 
proved ;  but  in  others  they  were  growing  distinctly  worse ;  we 
shall  briefly  examine  the  subject  afterwards,  when  the  attention 
of  Parhament  was  directed  to  it,  unhappily  at  an  untoward 


326  Ireland.  [Chap. 

season.  The  Melbourne  Administration  however,  possibly  be- 
cause the  new  English  Poor  Law  was  coming  into  effect,  did 
really  see  what  was  the  worst  feature,  perhaps,  in  the  structure 
of  social  life  in  Ireland,  the  presence  of  a  huge  population  on 
the  soil,  and  did  try  to  make  a  change  for  the  better.  A  late 
Report  had  disclosed  the  appalling  fact  that  two  millions  and 
a  half  of  beings  in  Ireland  were  sunk  in  the  lowest  depths  of 
wretchedness ;  and  society  was  injured  in  all  its  parts,  owing 
to  the  destructive  burden  of  this  vast  mass  of  penury.  All  the 
evils  we  have  noticed  before,  rents  forced  up,  wages  beaten 
down,  millions  squatted  on  the  land  in  little  patches,  and  the 
c"  potato  made  the  only  staff  of  life  had  been  increasing  to  a 
marked  extent ;  there  had  been  no  actual  dearth  since  1822, 
but  this  state  of  things  was  fast  becoming  dangerous.  The 
Melbourne  Government  gave  Ireland  (1838),  what  should  have 
been  given  a  century  before,  a  Poor  Law  framed  on  the  English 
^  model ;  and  this  measure,  asserting  as  it  did  the  principle  that 
Property  is  bound  to  support  Poverty,  and  above  all,  to 
provide  against  its  excess,  has  ultimately  had  very  good  results. 
But  it  was  introduced,  as  it  were,  at  the  eleventh  hour ;  its 
immediate  effects  could  not  be  great ;  and  it  utterly  failed,  as 
we  shall  see,  to  deal  with  the  calamity  of  a  few  years  afterwards, 
which  involved  Ireland  in  a  great  catastrophe.  The  last  im- 
portant measure  of  the  Melbourne  Ministry  was  a  well-designed 
but  imperfect  reform  of  Municipal  Government  throughout 
Ireland  (1840).  The  great  majority  of  the  Irish  Corporate 
Bodies  were  the  rulers  of  the  small  Parliamentary  boroughs, 
originally  set  up  by  James  I,  and  of  boroughs  of  a  similar 
class ;  they  had  become  centres  of  Protestant  ascendency  of 
the  worst  kind ;  and  they  were  very  properly  swept  away. 
But  Municipal  Government  was  not  placed  on  a  popular  basis 
in  the  great  towns  of  Ireland,  largely  owing  to  the  opposition 
of  the  Tories  of  the  time ;  and  a  reform  in  this  respect  has  to 
be  yet  accomplished.     It  is  scarcely  necessary,  however,   to 


X.]  From   1829  to  1868.  327 

remark  that  municipal  life  in  Ireland  can  never  be  as  powerful 
and  free  as  it  is  in  Great  Britain ;  the  differences  between  the 
two  countries  make  this  impossible. 

The  policy  and  the  measures  of  the  Melbourne  Government 
had  certainly  accomplished  much  good  in  Ireland,  if  their  short- 
comings have  been  long  ago  apparent.  The  Union  was  very 
decidedly  strengthened  ;  Catholic  Emancipation  was  effectually 
carried  out ;  especially  all  orders  and  classes  of  men  were  made 
to  feel  they  were  under  an  equal  law,  a  result  for  Irishmen  of 
supreme  importance.  The  Ministry,  however,  weak  in  Great 
Britain  from  the  first,  became  year  after  year  weaker;  it 
ultimately  sank  into  mere  impotence.  The  causes  of  this  were 
threefold :  the  people  of  England  and  Scotland  were  eager  for 
reforms,  which  the  Government  did  not  try  to  undertake,  and 
resented  the  time  devoted  to  Irish  affairs;  the  country  was 
rallying  around  Peel,  the  great  leader  of  an  Opposition  of 
formidable  power ;  and  the  conduct  of  O'Connell,  and  of  the 
men  in  his  train,  had,  in  Parliament  and  elsewhere,  given 
extreme  offence.  The  representation  of  Ireland,  indeed,  had, 
by  this  time,  become  much  degraded;  the  "Tail"  of 
O'Connell  was  composed  of  very  inferior  men,  mere  in- 
struments of  his  will,  without  station  or  wealth,  and  thrust  into 
the  House  of  Commons  by  himself  and  the  Irish  priesthood ; 
O'Connell  had,  over  and  over  again,  shocked  Englishmen  by 
his  abusive  language;  and  all  this  had  caused  very  general 
disgust. 

The  Melbourne  Ministry  was  swept  away  in  1841 ;  but 
"the  Irish  difficulty,"  to  use  his  own  words,  confronted  Peel 
almost  from  the  outset,  though  he  was  at  the  head  of  a 
very  strong  Government.  The  Whig  Opposition,  Catholic 
Ireland,  and  O'Connell  loudly  pronounced  against  him ;  and 
he  was  greatly  hampered  by  Orange  partisans,  and  by  the 
supporters  of  Protestant  ascendency  throughout  Ireland,  who 
persisted  in  seeing  their  champion  in  him.     He  had  really  no 


328  Ireland.  [Chap. 

sympathy  with  men  of  this  type ;  but  he  was  not  quite  free 
from  the  associations  of  the  past ;  and  some  appointments  he 
made  Avere  supposed  to  indicate  that  he  was  returning  to  the 
exclusive  and  sectarian  Irish  Tory  policy,  which  had  prevailed 
before  1829.  O'Connell  instantly  seized  the  occasion;  de- 
clared that  "justice  to  Ireland"  had  become  impossible;  and, 
for  the  second  time,  made  an  effort  to  combine  a  great 
popular  movement  against  the  Union. 

Whether  this  crusade  was  a  mere  party  move,  or  whether 
the  Irish  leader  had  faith  in  it,  and  believed  that  he  could 
achieve  Repeal,  is,  perhaps,  impossible  to  determine ;  but  the 
circumstances  point  to  the  first  conclusion.  O'Connell  once 
more  brought  into  play  the  forces  which  had  proved  irresistible 
in  1824-28:  he  called  on  the  priesthood  to  rally  around  him; 
he  appealed  to  the  Catholic  millions  to  join  the  cause;  he 
adjured  all  Irishmen  to  remember  the  days  of  the  Volunteers, 
and  to  strike  for  the  free  Parliament  of  1782.  The  powerful, 
well-contrived,  and  far-spreading  machinery  of  the  Catholic 
Association  was  again  employed ;  the  Catholic  Rent  was  again 
collected ;  and  the  agitation  against  the  Union,  with  hundreds 
of  priests  at  its  head,  was  made,  to  a  certain  extent,  a  religious 
cry,  and  was  maintained  throughout  the  country  by  numerous 
bodies  of  men  affiliated  to  the  great  central  League  of  Repeal. 
The  movement,  organised  and  directed  in  this  way,  assumed  in 
I  1843  gigantic  proportions  ;  Catholic  and  Celtic  Ireland  flocked 
around  O'Connell,  and  especially  around  its  sacerdotal  leaders ; 
"monster  meetings,"  as  they  were  fitly  called,  attended  by 
hundreds  of  thousands  of  peasants,  were  assembled,  in  different 
places,  in  the  southern  provinces ;  and  O'Connell  addressed 
I  them  in  impassioned  language,  not  seldom  of  all  but  a 
*  treasonable  kind.  Yet  this  agitation  had  nothing  like  the 
strength  of  that  which  had  caused  the  Catholic  claims  to 
prevail ;  and  it  was  resisted  by  forces  which  made  it  hopeless. 
Very   different    from    what    happened    from    1813    to    1828, 


X.]  From   1829  to  1868.  329 

England  and  Scotland  condemned  it  to  a  man ;  it  was  dis- 
countenanced by  more  than  one  Irish  Catholic  bishop,  and  by 
a  certain  number  of  the  Irish  Catholic  clergy.  But  above 
all — and  this  was  the  most  marked  distinction — the  property 
of  Ireland  and  her  intelligence  were  almost  wholly  arrayed 
against  it;  Liberal  Protestants  of  the  school  of  Grattan  agreed, 
in  this  matter,  with  extreme  Orangemen,  and  with  the  great 
body  of  the  Catholic  gentry;  in  fact  the  best  and  most  vigorous 
elements  in  Irish  social  life  were  thoroughly  combined  to 
support  the  Union.  The  real  lesson  of  the  movement  of  1843 
was,  in  truth,  this,  that  Irish  Nationality,  a  vain  phantom  that 
never  existed  in  any  true  sense,  was,  in  the  eyes  of  the  Irish 
Catholic  Celts  and  their  leaders,  what  it  had  been  in  those  of 
Rinuccini  and  his  priests,  and  that  Catholic  ascendency  was 
not  to  be  endured  by  the  Ireland  of  loyalty,  substance,  and 
thought. 

It  may  be  affirmed  with  certainty  that  an  armed  rising  was 
never  within  O'Connell's  mind ;  but  the  Government  took  only 
due  precautions,  in  subjecting  the  use  of  arms  to  close 
restrictions,  and  in  sending  an  additional  military  force  to 
Ireland.  Peel  confronted  the  movement  with  calm  stead- 
fastness ;  declared  that  he  preferred  civil  war  to  Repeal ;  and 
when  a  great  monster  meeting  had  approached  Dublin,  caused 
O'Connell  and  several  of  his  lieutenants  to  be  placed  under 
arrest.  The  trial  that  followed  was,  in  some  respects,  un- 
fortunate ;  the  foremost  man  of  Catholic  Ireland  was  arraigned 
before  a  Court  of  Protestant  judges,  one,  notoriously,  an 
extreme  partisan  ;  Catholic  jurors  were  excluded  from  the  jury 
list,  through  a  mistake  not  discovered  to  this  day;  and  the 
proceedings  wore  a  look  of  real  injustice.  But  the  wrong  that 
was  done  was  redressed  by  the  House  of  Lords,  adverse  in 
politics  as  it  was  to  the  accused;  the  omission  in  the  jury  Hst 
was  sternly  condemned;  O'Connell  and  his  associates  were 
at  once  set  free.     The  movement  against  the  Union,  never- 


r 


330  Ireland.  [Chap. 

theless,  had  been  completely  stayed ;  the  whole  agitation 
speedily  collapsed;  O'Connell  practically  abandoned  Repeal 
once  more,  covering  a  timid  and  even  an  ignominious  retreat 
by  a  pretence  in  favour  of  a  Federal  scheme  of  Irish  Govern- 
ment, which  a  few  politicians  had  seemed  to  approve.  It  is  more 
than  doubtful,  we  repeat,  if,  at  this  time,  he  felt  the  hatred  of 
the  Union  he  professed;  still  more  so  that  he  believed  its 
abolition  possible;  and  it  is  certain  that,  imposing  as  were 
the  arrays  of  his  masses  of  Catholic  Celts,  they  had  not  the 
cause  of  Repeal  at  heart,  and  saw  in  it  a  means  only  to  effect 
other  ends.  One  remarkable  episode  of  the  movement  de- 
serves the  attention  of  the  student  of  Irish  History.  O'Connell 
obtained  the  enthusiastic  support  of  a  small  knot  of  very  able 
men,  who  represented  the  ideas  of  the  nobler  spirits  of  the 
United  Irishmen  of  another  day ;  one,  Davis,  was  gifted  with 
real  genius ;  others,  especially  Duffy — he  still  survives,  in 
honoured  old  age — had  great  parts;  all  advocated  Repeal  in 
the  firm  belief  that  it  would  make  Ireland  a  nation,  and  do 
good  to  the  different  races  and  faiths.  Yet  the  "  Young 
Ireland  "  party,  as  it  was  called,  was  summarily  put  down  by 
O'Connell  and  the  priests,  the  moment  it  ventured  to  cross  his 
will ;  in  a  few  weeks  it  was  simply  effaced.  This  was  another 
'  example  of  the  divisions  which  have  wrecked  so  repeatedly  an 
Irish  cause ;  but  the  fate  of  Young  Ireland  was  of  deeper 
import ;  it  proved  what  the  conceptions  were  of  "  Nationality  " 
and  political  freedom,  in  the  mind  of  Catholic  and  sacerdotal 
Ireland. 

The  Repeal  movement,  easily  stopped  as  it  was,  un- 
questionably made  a  deep  impression  on  Peel.  Circumspect 
and  cautious,  he  received  new  ideas  slowly,  but  he  could  act 
boldly  on  them  when  once  convinced ;  he  turned  his  mind  to 
a  remedial  Irish  policy.  Very  possibly,  if  he  had  had  the 
power,  he  would  have  tried  to  effect  what  Pitt  and  Grattan 
had  wished,  and  have  made  a  provision  for  the  Irish  CathoHc 


X.]  From  1829  to  1868.  331 

priesthood;  still  the  attempt  would  have  destroyed  his  Ministry. 
But  he  largely  increased  the  revenue  of  the  College  of 
Maynooth,  in  the  hope,  probably,  that  this  would  raise  the 
status  and  position  of  the  Irish  priests,  and  attract  into  their 
ranks  sons  of  the  Catholic  gentry;  the  measure  was  in  the 
right  direction ;  but  the  immense  majority  of  this  order  of  men 
is  still  drawn  from  the  class  of  the  superior  peasantry,  and  has 
the  feelings  of  the  CathoHc  occupier  of  the  soil.  Another 
important  measure  of  Peel  was  an  effort  to  improve  and 
extend  the  education  of  the  higher  middle  class  in  Ireland, 
which  had  remained  in  a  deplorably  low  condition.  He 
established  the  "Queen's  Colleges,"  as  they  have  been  called; 
but  these  institutions  embodied  the  faulty  principle  of  the 
Primary  or  National  system  referred  to  before ;  they  were  con- 
demned as  "  godless  "  by  the  Irish  Catholic  Bishops;  and  though 
they  have  been,  in  some  degree,  successful,  and  have  flourished 
in  Presbyterian  Ireland,  Catholic  Ireland  has  no  sympathy 
with  them.  Since  Peel's  time,  a  kind  of  University,  on  the 
French  model,  has  been  set  up  in  Ireland,  with  fruitful  results; 
but  the  education  provided  for  the  upper  middle  class  of  the 
Irish  Catholics  is  still  bad  and  imperfect.  The  University  of  11 
Dublin  indeed,  to  her  great  credit,  has  long  ago  thrown  open 
her  degrees  and  honours  of  every  kind  to  the  Irish  Catholic; 
this  liberality  began  as  far  back  as  1793 ;  it  has  been  steadily, 
and  ever  since,  continued.  But  the  University  of  Dublin 
remains  a  Protestant  place  of  learning ;  its  teaching  and  spirit 
are  distinctly  Protestant ;  a  Catholic  atmosphere,  so  to  speak, 
does  not  breathe  in  it.  Catholic  Ireland,  as  Burke  and 
Newman  have  written,  has  a  just  claim  to  a  Catholic 
University  of  its  own. 

It  is  scarcely  necessary  to  say  that,  by  this  time.  Peel  had 
broken  completely  with  the  system  of  Protestant  ascendency 
in  Irish  affairs,  with  which,  indeed,  he  never  had  heartfelt 
sympathy.     He  soon  dissociated  himself  still  further  from  the 


332  Ireland.  [Chap. 

past ;  he  took  an  important  step  in  his  reforming  Irish  policy, 
which,  but  for  subsequent  events,  might  have  had  immense 
results.  As  Chief  Secretary,  we  have  seen,  he  had  disregarded 
the  rights  of  the  tenant  in  Irish  landed  relations ;  he  had, 
perhaps,  sanctioned  the  code  of  speedy  ejectment;  he  had 
steadily  enforced  the  demands  of  landlords.  But  he  was  the 
first  economic  statesman  of  his  day;  his  mind  had,  by  degrees, 
opened  to  the  evils  and  dangers  of  the  land  system  of 
Ireland ;  he  resolved,  if  possible,  to  devise  a  remedy.  He 
appointed  the  well-known  Devon  Commission  to  report  on  the 
condition  of  the  Irish  land,  on  its  modes  of  tenure  and 
occupation,  and  the  social  results ;  and  certainly,  had  he  long 
remained  Minister,  he  would  have  made  very  considerable 
changes  in  it.  The  essential  features  of  the  Irish  land 
system,  since  we  glanced  at  what  they  were  thirty  years 
before,  w^re  still,  to  a  great  extent,  unaltered ;  there  were  the 
same  divisions  between  the  owner  and  the  occupier  of  the 
soil;  if  absenteeism  had,  perhaps,  increased,  absentee  estates 
were  being  better  managed;  middleman  tenures  had  continued 
to  grow  less,  but  they  still  wrought  harm  in  great  tracts  of  the 
country ;  the  large  body  of  the  peasantry  was  still  in  a  most 
backward  state.  For  the  rest  the  landed  gentry  had  markedly 
improved,  in  manners,  habits  of  life,  and  reverence  for  law;  in 
these  respects  they  were  different  even  from  their  fathers ;  but 
the  events  of  1824-29  had  broken  down  their  power  and 
alienated  their  dependents  from  them ;  as  the  value  of  their 
estates  rose,  and  the  system  of  large  farming  became  developed, 
the  tendency  to  exaction  became  stronger  in  them ;  their 
relations  with  the  peasantry  grew,  by  degrees,  less  friendly. 
Yet  these  bad  characteristics  of  the  land  system  of  Ireland 
were  as  nothing  compared  to  its  worst  vices.  The  enormous 
increase  of  the  population,  before  referred  to,  had,  we  have 
seen,  forced  up  rent  to  an  excessive  rate,  had  covered  the  land 
with  dense  swarms  of  misery,  had  reduced  wages  to  the  very 


X.]  From   1829  to  1868.  333 

lowest  point,  had,  in  a  word,  as  was  truly  said,  "  based  society 
in  Ireland  on  the  potato";  and  all  this  had  made  Irish  landed 
relations  disorganised  in  the  highest  degree,  and  perilous  to  all 
classes,  and  even  to  the  State.  Meanwhile  the  concurrent 
rights  in  their  holdings,  which  the  peasantry  had  acquired  by 
what  they  had  done  on  them,  had  continued  to  increase  to  an 
enormous  extent ;  and  as  the  competition  for  the  soil  became 
more  intense,  by  the  multiplication  of  beings  on  it,  large  sums 
were  paid  for  the  "good  will"  of  farms,  which  really  conferred 
a  proprietary  right  in  them.  The  moral  claims  to  the  land, 
created  by  these  means,  were,  we  repeat,  protected  in  the 
great  mass  of  cases ;  indeed  they  never  could  have  grown  up 
otherwise ;  and  the  wild  complaints  made,  in  this  respect, 
against  the  Irish  landed  gentry,  have  been  grossly  exaggerated, 
or  are  absolutely  false.  The  claims,  however,  which  in  fact 
approached  a  joint  ownership  over  millions  of  acres,  continued, 
as  before,  to  be  not  law-worthy :  they  had  never  been  recog- 
nised by  the  State ;  and,  in  consequence,  they  were  too  often 
destroyed  by  eviction  and  other  unjust  proceedings.  The 
result  was  that  agrarian  disorder  and  the  Whiteboy  system  had 
never  ceased;  Lord  Wellesley  had  described  this  state 
of  things,  a  few  years  before,  as  "a  complete  system  of 
legislation,  with  the  most  prompt,  vigorous  and  severe  ex- 
ecutive power,  armed  for  all  purposes  of  savage  punishment"; 
and,  in  1844,  more  than  1000  agrarian  crimes  had  disgraced 
Ireland.  In  Ulster  landed  relations  were  in  a  better  condition; 
but,  even  in  Ulster,  what  was  known  by  the  name  of  the 
Tenant  Right  had  been  sometimes  invaded. 

The  Report  of  the  Devon  Commission  was  composed  by 
landlords,  but,  if  somewhat  timid,  it  was  of  great  value, 
especially  in  showing  how  the  land  system  of  Ireland  grew 
out  of  the  conquests  and  confiscations  of  the  past.  The 
evidence  appended  is  of  extreme  importance;  it  illustrated 
amply  and  with   perfect  clearness  the  numberless  social  and 


/>.  30/ 


334  Ireland.  [Chap. 

economic  ills  which  had  been  the  results  of  Irish  land  tenure, 
especially  in  the  fifty  years  previously,  and  the  dangers  of  a 
redundant  population  crowded  on  the  soil.  The  recommenda- 
tions of  the  Commission  were,  however,  faulty,  and  too  charac- 
teristic of  British  ignorance  of  Irish  affairs ;  they  did  not  aim 
at  giving  the  sanction  of  law  to  the  joint  ownership  of  the 
Irish  tenant ^  which  ought  to  have  been  their  main  object; 
they  described  it  in  the  spirit  of  the  Tudor  lawyers,  who 
sneered  at  the  landed  usages  of  the  Celt,  as  an  excrescence  on 
the  true  rights  of  property,  and  this  caused  grave  discontent  in 
Ulster.  The  Commission,  nevertheless,  proposed  measures  for 
compensating  tenants  for  improvements  added  to  their  farms ; 
a  Bill  to  this  effect  was  introduced  afterwards  ;  but  it  perished 
in  the  wreck  of  Peel's  Ministry.  The  Irish  Land  Question,  as 
it  has  ever  since  been  called,  remained  nearly  untouched  for  a 
long  series  of  years ;  feeble  attempts  to  deal  with  it  failed  in 
different  ways ;  English  statesmen  held  to  the  belief  that  it 
would  settle  itself  without  legislation  of  a  searching  kind. 
Repeated  and  earnest  efforts,  however,  have  been  made  to 
settle  it  in  quite  recent  times  ;  but  the  subject  falls  outside  the 
period  of  this  work ;  a  word  or  two  only  can  be  said  on  it.  An 
endeavour  to  secure  the  joint  ownership  of  the  Irish  tenant 
was  made  in  1870  ;  the  measure  was  based  on  sound  prin- 
ciples ;  but  it  did  not  completely  solve  the  problem.  Another 
experiment  was  tried  in  1881,  a  surrender  to  a  rebellious 
movement  fastening,  as  in  1798,  on  agrarian  trouble,  and 
loathsome  for  many  base  deeds  of  wickedness ;  the  joint 
ownership  of  the  tenant  received  the  fullest  protection;  but 
this  was  accomplished  by  so  bad  a  process  that  the  Irish 
land    system    has    been   almost   torn   to   pieces.     The   Irish 

1  Burke,  with  his  superior  insight,  saw  even  a  century  ago  that  the 
Irish  tenant  was  morally  a  joint-owner  of  the  land,  and  indicated,  too,  the 
true  principles  by  which  his  joint-ownership  should  be  vindicated  by  law, 
namely,  turning  him  into  a  copyholder  at  a  just  rent. 


X.]  From  1829  to  1868.  335 

tenant  has  now  large  proprietary  rights  in  the  land ;  his  mode 
of  tenure,  once  perhaps  the  worst  in  Europe,  has  been  made 
liberal  in  the  highest  degree ;  but  the  Irish  landlord  has  been 
grossly  wronged ;  and  the  relations  between  the  two  classes 
have  been  so  adjusted  that  a  notion  is  abroad  that  the  whole 
landed  system  of  Ireland  must  be  turned  upside  down,  by  a 
general  expropriation  of  Irish  landlords  and  the  conversion  of 
tenants  into  owners  in  their  stead,  as  if  Irish  confiscations  had 
not  already  pointed  their  moral. 

In  Ireland,  however,  as  too  often  has  been  the  case  in 
India,  Nature  ere  long  suddenly  interposed  to  show,  by  an 
awful  example,  what  terrible  ills  may  overtake  a  community, 
seated  on  the  land  in  overflowing  multitudes,  and  depending  for 
existence  on  a  supply  of  perishable  food.  In  the  autumn  of 
1845  the  potato  failed,  to  a  considerable  extent,  in  most  parts 
of  Ireland ;  and  the  results,  though  less  tragic  than  they  were  to 
become,  were,  even  from  the  first  moment,  dreadful.  No 
premonitory  signs  of  the  visitation  had  appeared  ;  it  fell  on  the 
land  hke  the  ravage  of  war  and  pestilence.  The  miUions  of 
wretchedness,  vegetating  on  patches  of  the  soil,  were  torn  from 
their  homes  in  destitute  masses,  driven  to  and  fro  in  search  of 
the  means  of  life;  and  even  the  classes  next  above  were 
reduced  to  extreme  want.  This  was  especially  the  condition 
of  things  in  the  great  Celtic  districts  west  of  the  Shannon,  and 
in  three  or  four  of  the  counties  of  Munster,  in  which  poverty 
had  for  ages  prevailed;  and  though  famine  was  largely  averted 
in  these,  the  enormously  dense  population  cruelly  suffered.  In 
the  better  parts  of  Ireland  there  was  less  actual  want ;  but 
even  in  these  there  was  great  distress ;  loud  murmurs  of 
discontent  were  heard,  and  society  became  more  or  less 
disorganised.  These  evils,  however,  were  but  the  prelude  to 
the  appalling  catastrophe  which  quickly  followed.  In  1846 
the  potato  all  but  wholly  perished ;  the  crop  of  cereals  too  was 
lamentably  short ;  and  dearth,  which  became  devouring  famine 


33^  Ireland.  [Chap. 

in  too  many  places,  spread  over  nine-tenths  certainly  of  the 
afflicted  country.  The  recently  made  Poor  Law,  as  may  be 
supposed,  was  utterly  unable  to  meet  the  strain  of  starving 
millions  crying  out  for  relief;  the  efforts  made  by  the  Govern- 
ment, gigantic  as  they  were,  but  not  well  conceived  in  some 
respects,  proved  to  a  certain  extent  fruitless ;  and  though  the 
destitute  population  was  for  the  most  part  saved,  many 
thousands  of  hves  were  unhappily  lost.  In  nearly  all  the 
poverty-stricken  districts,  wherever  the  land  had  been  densely 
occupied,  wherever  the  means  of  communication  were  few,  and 
especially  along  the  distant  coasts  of  the  sea,  the  famine  had 
a  fearfully  large  tale  of  victims ;  it  was  a  famine  of  the  middle 
ages  in  the  nineteenth  century.  The  more  prosperous  counties 
witnessed  no  scenes  hke  these ;  but  still  they  suffered  severely ; 
and  almost  everywhere  disease  and  fever  followed  in  the  train 
of  indigence.  Meantime  as  the  calamity  developed  itself, 
society  in  some  districts  simply  went  to  rack ;  and  hundreds 
of  thousands  of  peasants  fled  from  a  land  which  seemed 
smitten  as  it  were  by  a  plague  of  Egypt. 

The  attempts  made  by  the  State  to  cope  with  this  crisis 
were  extraordinary,  and  successful  in  the  main ;  but,  as  we 
have  said,  they  were  not  without  mistakes ;  they  strikingly 
showed  how  difficult  it  was  for  a  Government,  ruled  by  English 
ideas,  to  deal  with  the  disaster  which  had  befallen  Ireland. 
O'Connell  by  this  time  was  approaching  his  end ;  the  great 
agitator,  baffled  and  sick  at  heart,  had  almost  left  the  political 
scene ;  but  when  it  had  become  evident  that  famine  was 
threatening  Ireland,  with  other  thoughtful  men,  he  adjured 
the  Ministry  not  to  permit  the  export  of  grain  from  Ireland 
until  the  population  had  been  secured  a  sufficient  amount  of 
food.  But  the  principle  of  laissez  faire  then  prevailed  in 
our  Councils ;  a  proposal  of  the  kind  was  rejected,  as  an 
illegitimate  interference  with  trade ;  and,  indeed,  there  were 
solid  objections  to  it,  though  it  would  probably  have  been  tried 


X.]  From   1829  to  1868.  337 

by  a  Parliament  of  this  day.  Peel,  however,  with  a  true  states- 
man's instinct,  did  not  allow  the  relief  of  Irish  distress  to 
depend  wholly  on  the  so-called  laws  of  supply  and  demand; 
he  caused  large  supplies  of  corn  and  flour  to  be  secretly 
introduced  into  the  most  impoverished  districts ;  he  set  a 
system  of  Public  Works  on  foot;  and  by  these  means  the 
suffering  of  1845  was,  to  a  very  considerable  extent,  lessened. 
He  had  left  the  helm  when  the  trial  of  1846  came  ;  Lord  John 
Russell  and  his  colleagues  had  to  confront  a  calamity  infinitely 
worse  and  more  general.  They  were  able,  humane,  and  en- 
lightened men ;  they  were  firmly  resolved  that  the  starving 
multitudes  of  Ireland  should  be,  if  possible,  fed;  with  this 
object  in  view  they  freely  lavished,  with  the  approval  of 
Parliament,  the  wealth  of  the  Treasury.  Nor  can  it  be  doubted 
that  they  achieved  great  results ;  hundreds  of  thousands  of 
lives  were  beyond  question  saved ;  the  fell  hand  of  famine  was 
removed  from  many  districts ;  the  land  passed  through  an 
ordeal  of  fire,  scathed  indeed  cruelly,  but  still  spared.  The 
Government,  however,  were  too  much  swayed  by  economic 
doctrines,  which  probably  would  have  had  sufficiently  good 
results  in  Great  Britain,  but  which,  in  some  measure,  were 
wrongly  applied  to  Ireland.  They  did  not  follow  the  example 
of  Peel;  they  left  to  the  resources  of  ordinary  trade  the  supply 
of  food  to  the  poor  and  remote  parts  of  Ireland ;  this  would 
have  done  well  enough  in  a  commercial  country,  but  was 
unfortunate  in  one  where  there  was  comparatively  little  traffic ; 
and,  in  consequence,  many  unhappy  beings  perished.  The 
Government,  too,  refused  to  expend  any  money  on  reproduc- 
tive Public  Works,  for  this  would  check,  they  imagined,  private 
enterprise,  a  notion,  in  the  existing  state  of  things,  most  false ; 
and  yet  they  squandered  enormous  sums,  at  the  rate,  indeed, 
of  five  millions  a  year,  on  useless  works,  nearly  all  to  this  day 
unfinished.  They  made  the  conditions  of  relief,  moreover, 
stringent  in  the  extreme;   the  peasant  was  compelled  to  give 

M.  I.  22 


33^  Ireland.  [Chap. 

up  all  but  the  smallest  plot  of  land  before  he  could  obtain  aid 
from  the  State;  and  if  this  principle  was  certainly  sound,  it 
was  carried  out  with  unbending  harshness,  and  it  provoked 
far-spreading  terror  and  discontent.  And  while  the  Govern- 
ment were  giving  effect  to  a  policy,  of  which  the  necessary 
result  was  to  force  multitudes  of  beings  from  their  little  homes, 
they  did  nothing  to  make  provision  for  the  immense  emigration 
which  quickly  followed ;  this,  too,  was  abandoned  to  trade  and 
its  energies.  The  consequences  were  lamentable  in  the  highest 
degree ;  hundreds  of  fugitives  from  the  famine  met  untimely 
deaths  in  the  bad  and  half-seaworthy  vessels  of  that  day,  and 
never  saw  a  new  home  across  the  Atlantic  \ 

Notwithstanding,  however,  errors  like  these  the  Govern- 
ment, we  repeat,  did  prevent  famine,  except  in  a  few  isolated 
and  remote  spots ;  it  indisputably  deserves  the  high  praise  of 
history.  Its  conduct  contrasts  most  honourably  with  that  of 
the  Irish  Parliament  and  Executive  in  1 740-1,  when  a  dis- 
astrous famine  had  swept  over  the  land^;  these  were  then  in 
their  worst  and  lowest  state  ;  and  they  appear  to  have  done 
scarcely  anything  to  mitigate  distress.  And  whatever  may  have 
been  the  shortcomings  of  the  State,  the  heart  of  the  English 
people  went  out  to  Ireland ;  its  charity  was  most  profuse  and 
noble  j  it  showed  in  many  ways  the  most  kindly  sympathy. 
This  impulse,  indeed,  was  world-wide  and  general ;  contribu- 
tions for  the  starving  Irish  millions  flowed  in  from  the  United 
States,  from  all  lands  on  the  Continent,  and  even  from  the 
Ottoman  Empire;  the  sorrows  of  Ireland  had  made  mankind 
her  kin.     Nor  were  numberless  and  magnificent  instances  of 

^  A  noble  minded  philanthropist,  the  present  Sir  Stephen  De  Vere, 
braved  the  horrors  of  more  than  one  of  these  passages  in  order  to  direct  the 
attention  of  the  Government  to  these  evils.  Another,  Mr  Vere  Foster, 
followed  his  example. 

^  Very  interesting  details  respecting  this  famine  will  be  fomid  in 
Berkeley's  Letters. 


X.]  From  1829  to  1868.  339 

good  works  wanting  on  the  part  of  Irishmen  of  the  upper 
classes,  and  especially  of  the  great  landed  gentry.  Too  many 
evictions  indeed  took  place  ;  too  many  peasants  were  expelled 
from  their  dwellings,  in  circumstances  that  must  be  called 
deplorable ;  but  the  Government,  it  must  be  remembered,  had 
set  the  example  of  this  by  making  the  surrender  of  land  a 
condition  of  relief;  and  it  encouraged  evictions  by  different 
means,  for  the  belief  was  universal  that  the  petty  occupiers  of 
the  soil  must,  by  some  process  or  other,  be  removed  from  it. 
But  rents  and  arrears  of  rents  were  very  largely  remitted; 
estates  were  deeply  mortgaged  to  procure  funds  to  make 
provision  for  humble  dependents;  great  works  of  enclosure 
were  completed,  at  the  expense  of  landlords,  in  order  to  create 
supplies  of  wages;  hundreds  of  families  of  the  higher  orders 
were  zealous  in  deeds  of  good.  The  facts  should  be  noticed, 
for  the  conduct  of  the  Irish  gentry  in  the  Famine  of  1845-7, 
as  it  has  been  named,  has  been  repeatedly  denounced  by 
lying  demagogues,  for  the  unscrupulous  purposes  of  mere 
faction. 

The  events  of  1846-7  aroused  fierce  passions  in  Ireland, 
which  culminated  at  last  in  a  petty  show  of  rebellion.  This 
movement  was  altogether  different  in  character  and  aim  from 
the  great  Repeal  movement.  O'Connell  had  by  this  time 
gone — he  had  sunk  broken-hearted  into  the  grave,  a  light 
disappearing  in  gloomy  eclipse ;  and  the  more  violent  spirits 
of  the  young  Ireland  party,  indignant  at  what  they  denounced 
as  the  wicked  Irish  policy  of  the  British  Government,  lifted  up 
their  heads  again,  and  began  to  think  of  a  rising.  An  attempt 
was  made  to  stir  up  the  country ;  an  incendiary  Press  was  set 
up  in  the  capital ;  appeals  were  made  to  the  people  to  take  up 
arms  and  to  die  in  the  field,  not  in  a  ditch,  of  starvation.  The 
French  Revolution  of  1848  gave  an  impulse  to  an  agitation  of 
no  essential  force ;  a  deputation  from  Ireland  was  received  by 
Lamartine ;  and  the  condition  of  affairs  in  Dublin,  and  in  a 

22 — 2 


r 


340  Ireland,  [Chap. 

few  other  districts,  appeared  menacing  in  the  spring  of  that 
year.  The  CathoUc  priesthood,  however,  condemned  the 
movement,  and  kept  the  Catholic  masses  aloof;  its  leaders,  in 
fact,  were  for  the  most  part  Protestants ;  it  had  more  in 
common  with  the  United  Irish  movement  of  1793-8  than  with 
those  of  which  O'Connell  was  the  head.  The  "chiefs  of  the 
men  of  1848,"  as  they  were  called,  were  easily  put  down  by  the 
arm  of  the  law ;  some  were  prosecuted  and  sent  into  exile 
abroad ;  and  a  miserable  exhibition  of  puny  armed  force, 
directed  by  Smith  O'Brien,  a  landed  gentleman  of  considerable 
parts,  but  a  vain  enthusiast,  was  suppressed  by  a  small  party 
of  police.  The  rising  was  treated  in  England  with  contempt 
and  ridicule;  but  it  might  have  been  more  grave  than  it 
actually  was  had  not  Smith  O'Brien,  greatly  to  his  honour, 
refused  to  appeal  to  agrarian  passions  and  to  proclaim  a  war 
to  the  knife  against  landlords,  as  his  less  scrupulous  partisans 
advised.  The  failure,  however,  of  1848  left  a  legacy,  so  to 
speak,  which  deserves  notice.  John  Finton  Lalor,  one  of  the 
minor  leaders,  an  obscure  but  a  capable  man,  saw  the  power 
of  the  ideas  of  1793-8;  he  adopted  the  doctrines  of  the 
extreme  United  Irishmen ;  he  placed  on  record  sentiments  of 
no  slight  significance.  "The  cry  of  Irish  nationality,"  he 
wrote  in  substance,  "and  the  cry  against  the  Union,  are  of 
little  use ;  they  have  no  real  hold  on  the  minds  of  the  people ; 
what  the  peasantry  want  is  the  land  for  themselves ;  this  cry 
must  be  combined  with  the  others;  the  British  Government 
can  be  only  attacked  successfully  through  an  attack  on  the 
Irish  landed  gentry."  This  republication  of  the  United  Irish 
faith  attracted  no  attention  at  the  time ;  but  it  has  indicated 
the  unquestionable  truth  that,  although  nearly  a  century  has 
elapsed,  it  has  been  impossible  to  create  in  Ireland  a  general 
and  persistent  movement  against  the  Union  that  has  continued 
in  force  for  any  length  of  time  ;  and  it  has  marked  out,  as  it 
were,  the  lines  of  the  agitation  of  late  years  in  Ireland,  revolu- 


X.]  From  1829  to  1868.  31-1 

tionary  and  agrarian  at  once,  and  characterised  by  a  savage 
war  against  rent  and  landlords. 

The  emigration  from  Ireland,  meanwhile,  had  continued ; 
it  was  being  developed  into  that  great  exodus  of  the  Irish  race 
which  has  so  powerfully  affected  subsequent  events.  The 
Queen  visited  Ireland  in  1849;  notwithstanding  the  famine 
and  the  late  rising  she  received  an  enthusiastic  greeting,  an 
incident  that  conveys  its  own  lesson ;  that  the  visit  has  not 
been  often  repeated  and  prolonged  has  been  one  of  the  few 
mistakes  of  a  most  glorious  reign.  Society  in  Ireland  was  now 
gradually  settling  down ;  the  occasion  seemed  a  fitting  one  to 
make  a  great  experiment  in  the  adjustment  of  Irish  landed 
relations.  Little  had  hitherto  been  done  for  the  occupier  of 
the  soil ;  but  the  events  of  the  last  few  years,  it  was  thought, 
would  make  the  subject  of  his  tenure  of  slight  importance ;  and 
the  Government  turned  their  eyes  towards  the  Irish  landed 
gentry.  That  order  of  men,  from  many  causes,  of  which  mere 
extravagance  was  certainly  the  least,  had  had  their  estates 
heavily  charged  with  debt ;  the  law  made  the  transfer  of  these 
difficult ;  and  they  had  suffered  terribly  through  the  effects  of  the 
famine.  At  the  same  time  they  had  lost  most  of  their  political 
power  since  1828,  and  the  events  that  followed;  they  had 
become  divided  more  and  more  from  their  tenants ;  they  had 
been  deprived  of  much  local  influence,  through  the  growing 
bureaucratic  rule  of  the  Castle ;  and  they  had,  as  a  class, 
provoked  opinion  in  England,  which  forgot  that  the  evictions  it 
condemned  had  been  encouraged  by  the  State  and  made  a 
part  of  its  policy.  They  were,  in  a  word,  weak,  isolated,  and 
unpopular;  it  was  resolved  to  expropriate  by  a  summary 
process  as  many  of  the  body  as  it  was  supposed  could  not 
fully  discharge  the  duties  of  property.  An  Act  of  Parliament 
of  the  most  drastic  kind  was  passed  to  effect  the  sale  of  Irish 
Encumbered  Estates,  and  a  tribunal  was  set  up  to  carry  out  its 
objects.     The  proceedings  that  followed  had  too  much  resem- 


1 


1 


342  Ireland.  [Chap. 

blance  to  the  shameful  confiscations  of  the  seventeenth  century. 
Estates  were  flung  into  the  market  wholesale,  until  land 
became  a  mere  drug;  hundreds  of  old  and  worthy  families 
were  involved  in  ruin ;  the  rights  of  thousands  of  creditors 
were  ruthlessly  destroyed.  This  state  of  things  went  on  for 
some  years ;  and  ultimately  nearly  a  sixth  part  of  the  land  of 
Ireland  has  been  transferred  under  the  Encumbered  Estates 
Acts.  Confiscation,  however,  is  seldom  a  good  thing;  this 
policy  of  wrong  has  proved  a  complete  failure.  Its  authors 
hoped  that  a  large  number  of  Englishmen  and  Scotchmen 
possessing  wealth  would  become  owners  of  the  Irish  land  to  a 
considerable  extent ;  and  that  these  would  improve  the  con- 
dition of  the  occupiers  of  the  soil,  and  develope  the  resources 
of  a  backward  country.  The  result  has  been  almost  wholly 
the  reverse :  English  and  Scotch  capital  has  only  reached  the 
land  of  Ireland  in  the  mischievous  form  of  great  absentee 
mortgages ;  the  purchasers  under  the  Encumbered  Estates 
Acts  have  been  nearly  all  poor  and  hard-fisted  Irishmen,  for 
the  most  part  of  an  inferior  class;  and  these  have  proved 
landlords  of  a  very  bad  type,  successors  of  the  nearly  extinct 
middleman,  and  gravely  responsible  for  all  that  has  been  worst 
in  Irish  landed  relations  for  many  years.  The  Encumbered 
Estates  Acts,  too,  it  is  scarcely  necessary  to  say,  have  struck  a 
blow  at  the  Irish  landed  gentry  from  the  effects  of  which  they 
have  never  recovered  ;  and  the  consequences  have  been,  in 
many  ways,  unfortunate. 

The  Census  of  1851  disclosed  the  fact  that  the  population 
of  Ireland  had  been  reduced  by  the  huge  number  of  two 
millions  of  souls.  This  diminution  has  steadily  gone  on ;  a 
new  Irish  people,  in  truth,  has  been  created  by  emigration,  in 
the  United  States.  History  will  have  to  say,  in  the  future, 
whether  this  change  has  ultimately  made  for  good  or  for  evil ; 
but  unquestionably  it  had  most  beneficial  efifects  on  the 
material  condition  of  Ireland  for  many  years.     A  dense  mass 


X.]  From   1829  to  1868.  343 

of  wretchedness,  which  preyed  on  the  land,  injured  all  its 
relations,  and  opposed  an  almost  insuperable  bar  to  social 
progress,  was  removed  by  the  events  of  1845-7;  the  imme- 
diate good  that  followed  was  not  doubtful.  Districts  filled  by 
millions  who  could  not  till  them,  were  laid  open  to  improved 
husbandry ;  the  wages  of  labour  rapidly  increased ;  the 
competition  for  the  soil,  for  a  time,  lessened ;  rent  ceased  to 
be  unnaturally  forced  up.  A  long  period  ensued,  in  which 
Ireland  made  a  certain  and  steady  advance  in  wealth,  and  put 
on  a  look  of  even  marked  prosperity.  The  middleman 
tenures  almost  disappeared ;  thousands  of  acres  were  occupied 
by  English  and  Scotch  farmers,  who  spent  large  sums  in 
improvements  of  many  kinds ;  the  results,  for  many  years, 
were  full  of  brilliant  promise.  The  mud  hovel  and  the  potato 
patch  vanished  gradually  from  large  and  increasing  areas ;  the 
face  of  the  landscape  wore  a  better  aspect;  the  Ireland  of 
half-starving  multitudes  was  seen  no  more.  A  number  of 
causes  concurred  to  multiply  the  resources  of  the  country  in 
different  ways ;  the  prices  of  agricultural  produce  were  high  ; 
the  railway  system  opened  new  markets  and  made  them  easy 
of  access ;  immense  sums  were  lent  by  the  State  on  favourable 
terms  for  great  works  of  drainage ;  the  Irish  linen  manufacture 
made  decisive  strides.  The  material  good  effected  was 
striking  and  great ;  the  country  seemed  transformed  in  many 
places  as  regards  its  husbandry  and  the  breeds  of  its  animals ; 
some  of  the  towns,  especially  Belfast,  grew  immensely  in 
population  and  wealth  ;  above  all  the  condition  of  nine-tenths 
cei'tainly  of  the  peasantry  was  extraordinarily  improved.  The 
misery  and  rags  of  the  past  seldom  offended  the  eye;  the 
potato  ceased  to  be  the  only  chief  staple  of  food.  ^-301 

This  material  progress,  too,  seemed  to  many  observers 
accompanied  by  a  real  moral  progress.  The  Ireland  of 
1852-65  appeared  in  a  state  of  comparative  content;  scarcely 
a  ripple  disturbed  the  surface  of  things ;  the  great  body  of  the 


344  Ireland.  [Chap. 

people    uttered   no    murmurs.     The    memories    of    the   late 
troubled  era  were  deemed  forgotten ;  not  a  sound  against  the 
Union  was  heard ;  political  agitation  was  voted  a  thing  of  the 
past.     A  movement  in  favour  of  Tenant  Right,  indeed,  made 
a  faint  stir  in  1852-3  ;  but  it  passed  away  and  had  no  results, 
an  attempt  to  improve  Irish  landed  relations,  in  accord  with 
the   proposals   of  the   Devon    Commission,  foiled   by   a  not 
creditable  intrigue  in  Parliament,  collapsed,  and  yet  no  general 
complaints  were    made.     Even   agrarian   disorder   immensely 
diminished ;   a  few  agrarian  crimes  were  provoked,  now  and 
then,  by  harsh  evictions  and  acts  of  the  kind ;  but  it  sank  to 
an  ebb  never  known  before;  it  seemed  extinguished  by  the 
prosperity  of  the  time.     The  land,  as  a  whole,  was  almost  at 
rest;  the  relations  between  the  owners  and  the  occupiers  of 
the  soil  were  thought  to  have  very  greatly  improved,  for  rents 
were  well  paid,  and  there  was  little  social  trouble;  the  old 
divisions  between  them  seemed  much  less ;  even  laws,  framed 
on  English   ideas   and  disregarding   the  moral   rights  of  the 
Irish   tenant,   provoked  no   opposition   worthy  of  the   name. 
Meanwhile  the  forces  that  had  crossed  British  rule  in  Ireland, 
and   had   shaken   society  but   a   short  time    before,  had,  ap- 
parently, lost  their  hold  on  the  people;  they  were,  at  least, 
quiescent   and  scarcely  thought  of.     The  heads  of  the  Irish 
Catholic  Church,  recollecting  the  events  of  1848,  forbade  their 
clergy  to  take  part  in  politics,  and  set  their  faces  against  all 
movements   of  the    kind.      The   representation   of  Catholic 
Ireland   had  sunk   into   a   weak    and   querulous   faction,  oc- 
casionally trying  to  make  itself  felt  by  throwing  its  weight  into 
the    scales   of    party,    but   usually   dragged    in    the    wake   of 
Liberal   Ministries.      Ireland    seemed   peaceable,    submissive, 
reconciled  to  England ;  the  period  was  like  that  of  the  reign 
of  Ormond  between  the  Restoration  and  the  Revolution  of 
r688. 

In  these   circumstances  many  believed  that   the   "  Pacata 


X.]  From  1829  to  1868.  345 

Hibernia "  of  Tudor  writers  had  emerged  over  the  horizon  at 
last;  a  large  majority  of  British  statesmen  thought  the  "Irish 
difficulty"  had  been  set  at  rest.  Yet  Ireland  was  tranquil  on 
the  surface  only;  elements  of  disorder  and  peril  were  gathering 
by  degrees,  which  were  to  explode  the  shallow  optimism  of 
the  hour.  The  growth  of  Irish  prosperity  was  beyond  dispute ; 
but  it  mainly  depended  on  a  mere  accident,  the  flourishing 
state  of  agriculture  and  almost  excessive  prices.  The  social 
structure  of  Ireland  had  been  radically  changed,  with  con- 
sequences, in  many  respects,  excellent;  but  the  system  of 
small  farms,  and  all  that  this  implies,  remained  much  more 
general  than  was  commonly  supposed ;  it  deserves  notice  that 
the  large  English  and  Scotch  occupiers  who  had  *'  planted " 
whole  districts  seldom  fared  well ;  many  left  the  country,  like 
the  colonists  of  old,  or  sank  into  the  mass  of  the  Irishry. 
Meanwhile  landed  relations  had  not  become  essentially  better 
in  some  of  their  features,  in  spite  of  apparent  signs  to  the 
contrary;  in  others  they  grew  worse  by  degrees.  The 
bureaucratic  rule  of  the  Castle  successfully  enforced  obedience 
to  law ;  but  it  had  continued  to  weaken  the  landed  gentry,  and 
this  was  attended  with  many  evils.  That  order  of  men,  we 
have  said,  in  the  last  century  resembled  the  old  seigneurs  of 
France;  they  had  developed  into  an  aristocracy  attached  to 
their  country,  and  kindly  in  nature,  many  as  were  their  faults : 
they  were  now  being  assimilated  again  to  the  French  seigneurs, 
living  among  dependents,  but  without  influence,  and  ruled  by 
the  officials  of  a  Central  Government.  They  had  thus  privi- 
leges without  powers  or  duties,  a  thoroughly  false  position  for 
a  dominant  class,  which  gradually  lessened  the  deference  felt 
for  them,  and  estranged  them  more  and  more  from  the  people ; 
and,  at  the  same  time,  the  purchasers  of  lands  under  the 
Encumbered  Estates  Acts  proved,  we  have  seen,  generally 
harsh  landlords,  and  this  cast  discredit  on  the  body  of 
landlords  as  a  whole.     Things  went  on  well  enough  while  the 


34^  Ireland.  [Chap. 

tenant-farmer  throve ;  but  discontent  began  slowly  to  seethe ; 
and  signs  of  it  occasionally  appeared  in  agrarian  crimes, 
though  as  yet  too  few  to  attract  much  notice.  Simultaneously 
rents  rose,  as  the  riches  of  the  country  increased ;  and,  in 
addition,  the  rights  which  the  tenant  had  gained  through 
improvement  and  the  sale  of  "goodwill,"  rights  equivalent 
often  to  real  joint-ownership,  had  been  augmented  to  an 
extraordinary  extent.  Yet  these  rights  were  still  kept  outside 
the  pale  of  the  law ;  and  thus  if  much  positive  wrong  was  not 
frequently  done,  law  and  fact  continued  to  be  in  conflict 
throughout  the  sphere  of  Irish  landed  relations. 

All  this  sank  deep  into  the  minds  of  the  peasantry ;  if  they 
j  acquiesced,  they  had  the  memory  of  the  Celt ;  they  had  ac- 
quired a  rapidly  increasing  sense  of  their  power,  as  education 
had  made  way  among  them  ;  and  though  they  did  not  combine 
in  any  agrarian  movement,  for  an  opportunity  did  not  occur, 
their  apparent  content  was  not  real.  A  young  generation  too 
of  priests  was  arising,  which  looked  to  agitation  and  its  hopes 
again ;  these  secretly  fanned  a  flame  beneath  its  ashes ;  and 
the  complete  failure  of  reform  as  regards  the  land,  in  Parlia- 
ment, caused  sullen  passions  to  burn  beneath  the  surface. 
The  discontent,  however,  beginning  to  gather,  had  its  principal 
source  and  origin  outside  Ireland.  The  millions  of  emigrants 
since  1846  had  formed  a  new  Ireland  in  the  far  West;  they 
had  never  forgiven  the  British  Government  for  extruding  them, 
as  they  thought,  from  their  homes,  nor  yet  the  evictions  of  a 
terrible  time ;  and  they  had  become  a  formidable  power  in  the 
United  States,  incensed  against  England  and  Irish  landlords. 
The  exiles  and  their  descendants  were  in  close  contact  with 
the  Irish  peasantry  in  numberless  ways ;  their  communications 
became  every  year  more  frequent ;  and  the  feelings  they 
treasured  passed  by  degrees,  to  some  extent,  into  the  hearts  of 
the  people  which  remained  seated  on  the  soil  of  Ireland,  and 
especially  of  the  Catholic  masses.    Hundreds  of  Irish  Americans 


X.]  From  1829  to  1868.  347 

preached  to  their  kinsfolk  hatred  of  England  and  of  the  Irish 
landed  gentry ;  rebellious  and  socialistic  ideas,  as  regards  the 
land  especially,  were  widely  diffused.  These  influences  were 
almost  dormant  for  years ;  their  existence  was  not  suspected  by 
British  statesmen  \  they  did  not  even  become  strongly  manifest 
in  the  petty  rising  which  marks  the  close  of  this  period.  But 
they  had  attracted  the  notice  of  keen-eyed  observers  as  early 
as  1864-65;  and  unquestionably  they  supplied  potent  elements 
to  the  revolutionary  and  anarchic  agrarian  outbreak  of  1879-80 
and  1886-7. 

We  may  glance  back  at  this  point  of  time  at  the  intellectual 
growth  and  progress  of  Ireland  since  the  later  years  of  the 
eighteenth  century.  The  Established  Church,  we  have  said, 
has  produced  some  great  divines ;  we  may  refer  to  Magee, 
O'Brien,  Fitzgerald,  Salmon ;  the  Catholic  Irish  Church,  too, 
has  had  illustrious  names,  Doyle,  Murray,  Russell,  and  several 
others.  The  Irish  Bench  and  Bar  has  shown  a  noble  succes- 
sion of  advocates  and  lawyers  of  the  first  order;  real  orators, 
from  Curran  to  Plunket,  Shell  and  Whiteside;  great  jurists, 
Saurin,  Perrin,  Lefroy ;  and  O'Connell,  easily  supreme  in  the 
field  of  politics.  In  Literature  and  Philosophy  there  have 
been  no  "  lights  of  the  world  "  compared  to  Swift,  to  Berkeley, 
to  Burke,  but  in  either  sphere  we  find  writers  of  rare  gifts  and 
excellence.  Sterne  may  fitly  be  called  the  Irish  Rousseau; 
Moore  is  the  first  of  Irish  lyrical  poets,  filled  in  the  highest 
degree  with  the  Celtic  genius  ;  Davis  approaches  him,  and  had 
a  stronger  intellect ;  Archer  Butler,  McCullagh,  Brinkley,  Ball, 
Butt,  held  high  places  in  the  domain  of  thought.  In  History, 
we  possess  Lecky,  at  this  time  the  first  historian  of  the  English 
tongue,  whose  works  on  Ireland  should  be  prized  by  his 
countrymen ;  Mahan,  the  best  living  authority  on  naval  warfare, 
is  believed  to  be  of  Irish  descent.  Science  has  also  placed 
many  great  Irishmen  on  her  roll ;  the  mind  of  Ireland  during 
this   period    has   been    especially   rich    in    fiction.     Of  these 


n 


48  Ireland.  [Chap. 


writers,  beside  the  author  oi  Jane  Eyre,  Maria  Edgeworth  is  by 
far  the  greatest ;  inferior  to  Jane  Austen  in  delicacy  of  touch, 
she  has  more  breadth  and  knowledge  of  mankind ;  but  her 
distinctive  merit — and  its  value  is  immense — is  that  she  has 
drawn  incomparable  sketches  of  the  life  and  manners  of  Irish 
society  in  its  higher  grades.     The    distinction   in  letters  re- 
ferred to  before,  between  Protestant  and  Catholic  Ireland,  has 
continued   down   to    the   present    time;    it   reflects   the   still 
existing  divisions  of  race  and  faith  ;  we  see  this  very  clearly  in 
Miss  Edgeworth's  novels,  happiest  in  their  description  of  the 
upper  class  in  Ireland,  and  in  those  of  Banim  and  Carleton, 
which  bring  before  us  the  feelings  and  thoughts  of  the  Irish 
peasant.     The  mind  of  Catholic  Ireland  still  turns  as  before  to 
a  great  extent  to  the  past,  and  in  this  province  it  has  done 
great  things;  O'Donovan,  O'Curry,  Sullivan,  and  many  others, 
have   explored    Irish   antiquities  with   extraordinary  research. 
Ireland  has  had  few  remarkable  painters  and  architects ;  but 
she  has  given  the  world  more  than  one  renowned  sculptor ;  and 
in   the   histrionic,   the   handmaid    of  the    dramatic   art.  Miss 
O'Neill  was  the  most  perfect  Juliet  of  her  day.     Yet,  in  spite 
of  this  fine  record  of  the  works  of  the  intellect,  the  state  of 
education   in    Ireland  is    still    backward.     The   University  of 
Dublin,  indeed,  has  long  ago  blotted  out  the  obsolete  reproach 
3.5.^-5   of  the   "Silent  Sister";  she  has  among  her  sons  writers  of 
high    merit.     But  the   standard  of  education  in   Ireland,  we 
repeat,   is  to  this   day  low,   compared   with  that  of  England 
or  Scotland. 

The  elements  of  trouble  which  had  been  gathering  beneath 
the  surface  in  Ireland  for  a  long  time,  came  at  last  to  a  head 
in  an  abortive  outbreak.  Societies,  called  by  the  old  Celtic 
name  of  Fenian,  had  been  formed  in  the  United  States  by 
degrees ;  they  were  composed  of  Irish  emigrants  and  their 
sons ;  they  had  endeavoured  to  propagate  in  Ireland  with  a 
definite  aim  and  with  organised  means  the  rebellious  doctrines 


X.]  From  1829  to  1868.  349 

referred  to.  The  end  of  the  American  Civil  War,  through 
which  Irish  soldiers  were  sent  adrift  with  no  occupation,  in 
many  thousands,  gave  a  great  impulse  to  these  conspiracies ; 
and  a  movement  was  set  on  foot  which  had  as  its  object  an 
armed  rising  in  Ireland  and  a  confiscation  of  the  land.  The 
Confederates  in  the  United  States  combined  in  large  numbers ; 
considerable  sums  of  money  were  raised;  the  plans  of  the 
leaders  were  to  make  a  descent  on  Ireland  with  the  officers  and 
staff  of  a  military  force,  to  call  on  the  peasantry  to  assist  them 
in  the  field,  and  to  divide  the  estates  of  the  gentry  among  the 
"Fenian  army."  Agents  were  despatched  to  Ireland  to  effect 
their  projects ;  some  thousands  perhaps  of  the  youth  of  the 
towns,  and  of  reckless,  landless,  and  broken  men  were  enrolled 
in  the  musters  of  the  Fenian  levies ;  and  dexterous  attempts 
were  made  to  debauch  British  regiments  and  secretly  to  procure 
supplies.  The  movement,  however,  proved  a  sorry  failure, 
almost  as  impotent  as  that  of  1848.  The  Irish  priesthood 
denounced  Fenianism  as  wicked  anarchy ;  the  occupiers  of  the 
soil,  ready  enough  to  join  in  a  cry  for  reduced  rents  and 
improved  tenures,  feared  a  revolution  which  might  have 
deprived  them  of  their  farms;  self-interest  kept  them  aloof 
from  it.  A  few  Irish-American  soldiers  landed  in  Ireland  in 
the  first  months  of  1867 ;  but  they  found  no  force,  except  on 
paper,  to  command;  they  were  either  arrested  or  allowed  to 
escape ;  and  three  or  four  petty  bands,  which  made  an  attempt 
to  rise,  were  dissipated  by  the  Constabulary  without  the  loss  of 
blood.  Two  or  three  of  the  leaders  were  tried  and  punished; 
but  the  whole  affair  was  over  in  a  very  short  time,  if  trouble 
was  still  latent  beneath  the  surface  of  things.  Some  outrages, 
however,  took  place  in  England,  the  expiring  efforts  of 
Fenianism  in  great  towns ;  and  these,  like  flashes  of  lightning 
in  a  serene  sky,  turned  the  minds  of  Englishmen  to  the 
state  of  Ireland,  which,  they  had  believed,  had  been  for  years 
at  peace.     Mr  Gladstone  took  up  the  subject  with  characteristic 


3  so  Ireland.  [Chap. 

energy;  he  came  into  power  after  the  General  Election  of 
1868 ;  and  he  entered  on  the  path  of  reform  for  Ireland,  which 
he  has  ever  since  followed  wherever  it  has  led. 

The  ensuing  period  was  one  of  immense  change  in  Ireland, 
political,  social  and  economic ;  it  is  not  comprised  in  this  brief 
narrative.  History  will  have  to  pronounce  hereafter  on  the 
nature  and  tendencies  of  the  policy  since  adopted  or  proposed 
in  Irish  affairs. 

It  remains  for  us,  however,  to  say  a  few  words  on  the  general 
condition  of  Ireland  since  the  Union.  The  hopes  of  Pitt  have 
not  been  fully  realised ;  Ireland  is  not  wholly  one  in  heart  with 
Great  Britain ;  she  has  not  made  the  material  progress  which 
Pitt  expected.  The  old  divisions  in  her  social  structure  con- 
tinue )  Catholic  and  Protestant  Ireland  remain  apart,  separated 
by  profound  distinctions  of  race  and  faith.  If  Protestant 
Ireland  is  loyal  to  the  State  and  the  Union,  and  so 
is  the  Irish  Catholic  upper  class,  a  large  part  of  Catholic 
Ireland  is  not;  it  is  not  bound  to  England  in  genuine 
sympathy.  Ireland  is  still  infinitely  behind  Great  Britain 
in  all  that  constitutes  civilised  life ;  she  is  still  the  weak  and 
distorted  member  of  the  Three  Kingdoms.  And  it  would  be 
vain  to  deny  that  legislation  and  administration  for  Ireland 
have  been,  sometimes,  ill  conceived;  that  more  than  one 
measure  passed  by  the  Imperial  Parliament  had  done  real,  nay, 
great  mischief,  and  that  the  system  pursued  at  the  Castle  has 
been,  in  some  respects,  mistaken ;  above  all,  it  must  be  ad- 
mitted, that  several  Irish  reforms,  of  supreme  importance,  have 
been  deferred,  and,  especially,  have  been  often  too  lale.  Irish 
interests  have  been  repeatedly  postponed  to  gw^  place  to 
English  and  Scotch  questions ;  Ireland  has  been  made  the 
stalking-horse  of  British  party;  and  the  great  majority  of 
British  statesmen  have  found  it  very  difficult  to  understand 
Ireland,  to  minister  to  her  wants,  to  comprehend  her  ideas.  If 
the  occupiers  of  the  Irish  soil  have  obtained  immense  advan- 


X.]  From  1829  to  1868.  351 

tages,  the  Irish  landed  gentry  have  been  unjustly  treated  and 
reduced  to  a  state  of  social  impotence ;  the  representation  of 
Ireland  is  very  bad;  public  opinion,  in  Ireland,  is  feeble, 
unsound,  unhealthy.  Yet,  notwithstanding  these  undoubted 
drawbacks,  the  Union,  and  the  system  of  government  that  has 
been  a  part  of  it,  have  been  attended  by  immense  and  far 
overbalancing  good.  Most  of  the  grievances  of  the  Ireland  of 
the  past  have  been  removed ;  the  few  that  remain  will  soon 
disappear;  Ireland  has  made  an  extraordinary  advance  in 
wealth;  however  it  may  be  ascribed  to  the  events  of  1846-7,  the 
condition  of  the  mass  of  the  population  shows  an  improvement, 
which,  sixty  years  ago,  would  have  been  thought  impossible. 
Nor  has  real  moral  and  social  progress  been  wanting ;  the 
rebellious  Ulster  of  1793  is,  in  its  Teutonic  parts,  devoted  to 
England ;  all  Protestant  Ireland,  the  Catholic  gentry,  an  over-  ' 
whelming  majority  of  the  professional  and  commercial  classes, 
in  a  word,  the  wealth,  the  education  and  the  thought  of  Ireland, 
with  rare  exceptions,  befriend  the  Union,  and  are  deeply 
attached  to  the  British  connection ;  the  demand  for  "  Repeal," 
or,  for  the  same  thing,  "  Home  Rule,"  as  the  events  of  many 
years  have  proved,  has  no  real  hold  on  the  Irish  masses;  even  the 
peasant  occupiers  of  the  Irish  soil,  after  the  enormous  benefits 
that  have  been  lavished  on  them,  appear  disposed  to  rest  and 
be  thankful,  spite  of  the  appeals  of  lay  and  sacerdotal  dema- 
gogues. But  the  most  decisive  proof  of  the  good  which  the 
Union  has  done,  is  that  through  the  many  troubles  of  well-nigh 
a  century,  it  has  succeeded  in  making  the  law  administered  and 
obeyed  in  Ireland  in  a  way  never  known  before ;  that  it  has 
kept  Protestant  ascendency  down,  and  made  Catholic  subjec- 
tion a  thing  of  the  past;  that  it  has  maintained  a  salutary 
restraint  on  warring  Irish  factions;  that  if  it  has  not  effaced 
the  ills  of  distinctions  of  race  and  faith,  it  has  checked  the 
worst  animosities  which  grew  out  from  them.  In  these  im- 
portant  respects   the   contrast   presented   by   the    Ireland   of 


352  Ireland.  [Chap. 

1790-95,  and  the  Ireland  of  1890-95  must  strike  every  well- 
informed  enquirer. 

In  considering  this  subject  we  must  recollect,  besides,  what 
the  condition  of  Ireland  was  before  Pitt's  great  measure. 
Undoubtedly  the  Union  had  defects  in  itself,  and  was  ac- 
complished by  means  that  must  be  deplored,  and  also  at  an 
unpropitious  time ;  undoubtedly  it  has  been,  in  some  degree,  a 
failure.  But  those  who  cry  it  down  because  it  has  not 
transformed  the  Ireland  of  1800  into  a  social  paradise,  and 
made  the  desert  blossom  like  a  rose,  appear  to  forget,  if  they 
ever  knew,  that  the  Ireland  of  that  day  was  a  wreck  of  civil 
war,  to  a  great  extent  in  a  half-barbarous  state,  above  all 
bleeding  from  the  wounds  of  a  horrible  conflict  of  race  and 
faith,  which  had  effaced  civilisation  ere  it  was  grown  up, 
and  had  aroused  the  worst  hatreds  and  strife  of  the  past. 
These  facts  must  be  taken  into  account;  they  reasonably 
explain  why,  in  some  respects,  the  Union  has  not  effected  all 
that  was  hoped  from  it.  Circumstance,  too,  has  told  against 
the  Union  over  and  over  again ;  it  has  been  denounced  as  the 
cause  of  ills  which  in  no  sense  can  be  ascribed  to  it.  To  refer 
only  to  two  instances,  the  Tory  reaction  against  the  French 
Revolution,  and  the  disputes  of  the  Catholics  about  the  veto 
retarded  Emancipation  much  more  than  the  Union  or  anything 
pertaining  to  it ;  and  the  Irish  Land  Question  would  probably 
have  been  settled  long  ago  but  for  the  accident  of  the  fall  of 
Peel's  Government,  and,  in  some  degree,  the  events  of  the 
Famine. 

It  would  be  an  invidious,  nay,  an  impossible  task  to  attempt 
to  adjust  the  balance  of  right  and  wrong  between  England  and 
Ireland  through  long  centuries.  But  England  owes  a  large  debt 
to  Ireland,  without  reference  to  considerations  like  these.  We 
have  alluded  to  some  of  the  great  men  of  Catholic  Ireland,  who 
won  renown  for  her  in  foreign  lands;  unhappily,  but  for  no  faults 
of  their  own,  they  were  for  the  most  part  resolute,  if  most 


X.]  From  1829  to  1868.  353 

honourable  foes  of  England.  But  Catholic  Ireland  has,  for  some 
time  past,  seen  better  days  ;  hundreds  of  her  sons  have  risen  to 
eminence  in  our  Imperial  state;  thousands  have  fought  and 
conquered  in  the  battles  of  England.  "Where  were  the  aliens 
at  Waterloo?"  was  the  just  retort  of  an  Irish  orator  to  a  vulgar 
sneer;  in  War,  in  Letters,  in  all  the  arts  of  Peace,  the  aliens  have 
shed  glory  on  the  British  name.  Nor  should  Englishmen  forget 
the  great  deeds  of  Protestant  Ireland ;  Burke  remains  the  first 
of  our  political  thinkers;  Eyre  Coote,  Canning,  the  two 
Lawrences,  and  Dufferin  stand  high  among  the  founders  or 
governors  of  our  Indian  Empire ;  Arthur  Wellesley,  one  of  the 
"English  in  Ireland,"  was  born  an  Irishman;  Wolseley  and  ^"  '^^ 
Roberts,  the  great  living  soldiers  of  the  British  army,  are 
Irishmen,  in  no  doubtful  sense.  Yet  we  should  set  aside  distinc- 
tion of  race  in  looking  back  at  all  that  Ireland  has  done  for 
England;  and  it  should  be  added  that,  probably,  the  Celtic 
Irish  genius  has  been  a  much  more  powerful,  if  a  subtle  element,  ' 
in  giving  beauty  and  grace  to  the  English  intellect,  and  even 
in  fashioning  its  best  works,  than  is  suspected  by  the  great  mass 
of  Enghshmen.  For  these,  not  to  speak  of  many  other  reasons, 
England  is  bound  generously  to  discharge  a  debt  which  Ireland 
has  a  just  right  to  demand. 

In  following  the  course  of  Irish  History,  until  we  reached 
the  close  of  the  seventeenth  century,  we  have  pointed  out  how 
much  that  was  most  unfortunate  may  be  ascribed  to  circum- 
stances, and  to  what  we  call  accident.  The  same  remark 
applies  to  Irish  History  down  to  this  day ;  how  different  might 
its  course  have  been,  had  William  III,  following  the  traditions 
of  the  House  of  Nassau,  secured  religious  liberty  to  the  Irish 
Catholic,  and  been  true  to  his  word  after  the  fall  of  Limerick ; 
had  Pitt,  before  the  Union,  been  as  firm  of  purpose  as  he  had 
been  on  other  occasions ;  had  CathoHc  emancipation  been 
accomplished  in  1825,  not  in  1829  !  These  considerations,  we 
repeat,  do  not  excuse  acts  of  injustice  or  a  policy  of  folly  or 

M.  I.  23 


354  Ireland.  [Chap.  x. 

wrong;  but  they  should  diminish  the  bitterness  of  evil  memories; 
they  should  lead  us  to  judge  events  with  a  calm  and  sane 
mind;  while  they  give  a  mournful  interest  to  Irish  History, 
they  should  teach  the  lesson  of  charity  and  good  will.  What- 
ever may  be  the  policy  pursued  towards  Ireland,  time  must 
elapse  before  the  deep  wounds  of  the  past  can  be  completely 
healed,  before  the  old  and  bad  distinctions  can  be  smoothed 
away;  before  there  can  be  a  real  Union  of  Hearts  with  England, 
not  the  false  shibboleth  of  the  thoughtless  partisan,  but  the 
genuine  reconciliation  of  two  still  divided  peoples.  But,  while 
the  historical  student  looking  back  on  the  past  cannot  hope 
this  consummation  to  be  close  at  hand,  he  may  show  how  it 
can  be  brought  more  near;  above  all  he  may  indicate  the  true 
moral  to  be  drawn  from  an  impartial  survey  of  the  sad  but 
most  instructive  tale  of  the  affairs  of  Ireland. 


APPENDIX. 


LIST   OF   AUTHORITIES   ON   THE   PERIODS    OF  THE 
HISTORY    OF    IRELAND    COxMPRISED    IN    THIS    VOLUME. 

L 

For  the  period  before  the  Anglo-N^orman  Conquest. 

The  Annals  of  the  Four  Masters.  [The  narrative  goes  down 
to  the  seventeenth  century.]  O'Curry's  Manners  and  Customs  of 
the  Ancient  Irish.  C Curry's  Lectures  on  the  Manuscript  materials 
of  Irish  History.  The  Senchus  Mor  and  the  Book  of  Aicill,  with 
the  Prefaces.  Maine^s  Early  History  of  Institutions.,  a  most 
admirable  work.  Early  Christian  Architecture,  by  Miss  Stokes. 
Petrie's  Tara.  Petrie's  Round  Towers  of  Ireland.  Keane's  Towers 
and  Temples  of  Ancient  Ireland.  Brenan's  Ecclesiastical  History 
of  Ireland.  [The  narrative  goes  down  to  1829.]  Keatinge's  History 
of  Ireland.  The  story  of  Burnt  Nial  translated  by  Dasent. 
Joyce's  History  of  Ireland.  [The  narrative  goes  down  to  the 
seventeenth  century.]  Moore's  History  of  Ireland.  [The  nar- 
rative goes  down  to  1646.]  Irish  History  and  Irish  Character^  by 
Goldwin  Smith,  a  singularly  brilliant  and  able,  but  not  always  just, 
essay.  The  Story  of  the  Irish  Nation,  by  the  Hon.  Emily  Lawless, 
a  sketch  of  Ireland  from  the  earliest  to  the  present  time.  McGee's 
Popular  History  of  Ireland.     [The  narrative  goes  down  to  1829.] 

IL 

For  the  period  between  the  Aiiglo- Norman  Conqtiest  and  the 
Irish  Administration  of  Sir  Edward  Poynings. 

The  Irish  Statutes  from  13 10  to  1495  [most  of  these  have  not 
been  pubhshed,  and  are  known  only  by  their  titles.      The   Irish 

23—2 


35^  Ireland. 

Magna  Charta  will  be  found  in  the  Appendix  to  Leland's  History, 
Vol.  I.]  The  Statute  of  Kilketmy  edited  by  James  Hardima7i. 
This  is  the  best  existing  account  of  Ireland  in  the  feudal  age.  The 
Notes  are  of  specialvalue.  Docume7its  relating  to  Ireland  in  the 
Public  Record  Office  to  the  end  of  the  Reign  of  Henry  VII  : 
edited  by  H.  S.  Sweetman.  The  Works  of  Giraldus  Cambrensis^ 
especially  the  Topographia  Hibernica,  and  the  Expugnatio  Hiber- 
nica.  The  Discoverie  of  Sir  fohn  Davies,  extremely  valuable,  but 
full  of  the  spirit  of  a  Tudor  and  an  English  lawyer.  Spenser's  View 
of  the  State  of  Ireland.  Ware's  Annals.  Gilbert's  Viceroys. 
Finglas's  Breviate.  Harris''  Hibernica.  Campion's  History  of 
Ireland.  Leland''s  History  of  Ireland.  This  is,  on  the  whole,  the 
best  modern  authority  for  this  period.  The  work  contains  most  of 
the  important  references.  [The  narrative  goes  down  to  the  Treaty 
of  Limerick.]  Plowden's  History  of  Ireland  from  the  Reign  of 
Henry  II.  [The  narrative  goes  down  to  the  Union.]  Froude's 
English  in  Ireland.  This  must  be  called  a  bad  book.  [The 
narrative  goes  down  to  the  Union.]  Froude's  History  of  England, 
Vol.  II.,  Chapter  8.  Mant's  History  of  the  Irish  Church.  Hallanis 
Constitutional  History^  Vol.  III.,  Chapter  on  Ireland.  [The  nar- 
rative goes  down  to  the  Reign  of  George  III.]  Balls  Irish 
Legislative  Sy steins,  a  very  valuable  treatise.  [It  goes  down  to 
the  Union.]  The  O'Conors  of  Co7inaught^  by  the  O'Conor  Don, 
very  valuable  and  interesting. 

III. 

For  the  period  between  the  Administratio7i  of  Sir  Edward 
Poyiii7igs  a7id  the  death  of  Heiny   VIII. 

The  Irish  Statutes,  1495  ^o  1543-  [f'o^  the  results  and  working 
of  the  celebrated  Act  known  as  Poynings'  Law,  reference  should 
be  made  to  the  Irish  Parliamentary  Debates,  and  especially  to 
Flood's  Speeches,  to  Hallam's  Constitutional  History,  Vol.  III.,  on 
Ireland,  and  to  Ball's  Irish  Legislative  Systems.]  State  Papers 
relati7ig  to  the  Reign  of  Heiuy  VIII,  in  the  Public  Record  Office, 
edited  by  Hans  Claude  Hamilton.  The  Carew  Papers  edited  by 
J.  S.  Brewer  and  William  Bullen.  [The  series  extends  from  15 15 
to  1624  and  is  of  the  greatest  value  and  importance.]  Holings- 
head's  Chronicles  of  Ireland.     Cox's  History  of  Ireland.      [Leland 


Appendix,  35;^ 

has  collected  numerous  authorities  in  this  part  of  his  History, 
Vol.  II.,  Book  III.,  Chapters  5,  6,  7,  which  may  be  referred  to.  The 
works  of  Ware  and  Harris,  aiite^  and  Archbishop  Ussher  on  the 
Reformation  should  be  studied.]  Froude's  History  of  England, 
Vol.  II.,  Chapter  8,  ante^  and  Vol.  IV.,  Chapter  14,  and  the 
authorities  cited.  BalVs  Reforvied  Church  hi  Ireland^  an  excellent 
review  of  the  institutions  of  the  Irish  Anglican  Church.  [The  nar- 
rative goes  down  to  the  period  of  Disestablishment.]  The  Earls 
of  Kildare,  by  the  Marquis  of  Kildare,  very  interesting  and  well 
informed.  [The  work  goes  down  to  the  close  of  the  eighteenth 
century.]  Richeys  Lectures  on  Irish  History^  the  First  and 
Second  Series. 

IV. 

For  the  period  betweeii  the  death  of  Henry   VIII  and  the 
end  of  the  reign  of  Elizabeth. 

The  h'ish  Statutes,  1556 — 1586.  State  Papers  relating  to  the 
reigns  of  Edward  VI,  Mary  and  Elizabeth,  edited  by  Hamilton, 
a?ite.  The  Carciu  Papers  as  a?ite,  Davies  and  Spencer,  ante,  are  of 
special  value  for  this  period.  [Authorities  collected  in  Leland's 
History,  Vol.  11.,  Book  Iii.,  Chapter  8  ;  Book  iv..  Chapters  i,  2,  3, 
4,  5.  The  principal  of  these  are  Camden,  Stanihurst,  Hooker, 
Ware,  Fynes  Morison,  Cox.  The  Sydney  Papers.  The  life  of  Sir 
John  Perrott  and  his  Letters.  Sullivan's  History  of  the  Irish 
Catholics.  Carte's  Introduction  to  the  Life  of  Ormond.  Leland's 
narrative  may  also  be  read  with  profit  throughout  his  whole  work.] 
Froude's  History  of  England,  Vol.  v.,  Chapter  28 ;  Vol.  vill.  (2  of 
the  Reign  of  Elizabeth),  Chapters  7,  11 ;  Vol.  X.  (4  of  the  Reign  of 
Elizabeth),  Chapter  24;  Vol.  XI.  (5  of  the  Reign  of  Elizabeth), 
Chapter  27.  The  authorities  collected  by  Mr  Froude  are  very 
numerous  ;  his  research  is  admirable,  the  brilliancy  of  his  style  is 
well  known.  But  he  is  very  inaccurate,  and  his  animus  against 
the  Irish  Celtic  race  has  repeatedly  distorted  his  judgment. 
Leckfs  History  of  England  in  the  Eighteenth  Ce?itury,  Vol.  II., 
Chapter  6,  pp.  92  segq.  This  great  work  is  by  many  degrees  the 
best  account  of  Ireland  from  the  beginning  of  the  Reign  of 
Elizabeth  to  the  Union.  The  pages  here  referred  to  are  only 
preliminary  to  the  narrative,  which  does  not  fully  open  until  its 


358  Ireland. 

proper  date.  The  numerous  authorities  are  contained  in  the  Notes. 
The  Irish  chapters  have  been  published  as  a  separate  work.  The 
Calendar  of  the  Ancient  Records  of  Diibliii^  by  John  T.  Gilbert, 
published  by  the  authority  of  the  Municipal  Council.  This  im- 
portant work  at  present  extends  from  the  earliest  times  to  the  end 
of  the  seventeenth  century,  and  will  be  continued.  The  second 
series  of  Richey's  Lectures,  ante^  and  the  O'Conors  of  Connaught, 
by  the  O'Conor  Don,  ante^  are  very  valuable  for  the  whole  Tudor 
period. 

V. 

For  the  period  between  the  end  of  the  reign  of  Elizabeth 

and  the  Restoration. 

The  Irish  Statutes,  1612 — 1639.  Ireland.  State  Papers  j-elating 
to,  of  the  reign  of  James  I,  edited  by  C.  U.  Russell,  D.D.,  and  John 
P.  Prendergast.  The  Irish  State  Tj'ials  contained  in  Cobbett  and 
Howell's  Collection,  a.d.  1163 — 1820,  and  in  the  New  Series,  1820 — 
1848.  The  trial  of  Connor  Lord  Maguire  in  1645  is  worth  reading. 
A?t  Historical  Account  of  the  Plantatio?i  of  Ulster,  1608 — 1620,  by 
the  Rev.  George  Hill.  This  book  is  written  in  an  anti-English 
spirit,  but  is  very  learned  and  full  of  information.  The  authorities 
collected  are  numerous  and  valuable.  The  work  contains  Pynnar's 
Survey,  made  soon  after  the  Plantation.  History  of  Land  Tenure 
in  Ireland,  by  Dr  Sigerson,  able  and  useful.  The  Carew  Papers, 
ante.  The  series  ends  in  1624.  Cartels  Life  of  Ormofid,  most 
important.  Strafford^s  Letters.  Straffo7-d''s  Trial,  Rushworth. 
Bernard's  Life  of  Ussher.  Lord  Castlehaven's  Memoirs.  Borlase's 
History  of  the  Rebellion.  Warner's  History  of  the  Rebellion  and 
Civil  War  in  Ireland,  very  valuable  as  regards  the  alleged  Mas- 
sacre in  1 641.  Cnrry^s  Historical  Account  of  the  Civil  War  in 
Ireland,  very  valuable  for  the  same  reason,  and  unjustly  condemned 
by  Hallam.  Clarendon's  History  of  the  Rebellion  (the  Irish 
chapters).  These  are  chiefly  remarkable  as  showing  the  dislike 
and  contempt  felt  towards  Ireland  and  the  Irish  by  the  Stuarts 
and  the  Royalist  party  in  England.  Lord  Clanricarde's  Memoirs, 
very  valuable.  The  Letters  of  Cromwell,  edited  by  T.  Carlyle 
(the  Irish  letters).  Mr  Carlyle's  views  as  to  Ireland  and  the 
Irish  people  require  no  comment.     Leland^s  History,  Book   iv., 


Appendix.  359 

Chapters  6,  7,  8  ;  Book  v.,  Chapters  i,  2,  3,  4,  5,  6,  7  ;  Book  VI., 
Chapters  i,  2,  and  the  authorities  collected.  This  is,  on  the  whole, 
a  fair  and  judicious  narrative.  Leckfs  Histojy  as  aiite^  Vol.  II., 
Chapter  6,  pp.  100 — 174.  The  evidence  as  to  the  alleged  massacre  of 
1641  is  very  ably  summed  up  and  judged.  Ga?'diner^s  History  of 
England  from  the  Accession  of  James  I  to  the  Outbreak  of  the 
Civil  War  (the  Irish  chapters).  Gardiner's  History  of  the  Great 
Civil  War  (the  Irish  chapters),  see  especially  Vol.  I.,  Chapters  6, 
II  ;  Vol.  II.,  Chapters  27,  yj^  44.  Gardiner^s  History  of  the  Com- 
monwealth aftd  Protectorate,  Vol.  I.  (the  Irish  chapters),  see 
especially  Chapters  4,  5,  6.  The  authorities  in  these  learned  and 
judicious  histories  are  numerous.  The  Cro?nwellia?i  Settlement  of 
Heland,  by  John  P.  Prendergast,  written  in  an  anti-English  spirit, 
but  extremely  learned,  and  rich  in  original  and  useful  information. 
The  Life  of  Sir  William  Petty,  by  Lord  Edmond  Fitzmaurice,  very 
instructive  and  interesting.  The  Introduction  to  "  The  Patriot 
Parliament''  of  Thomas  Davis,  by  Sir  C.  G.  Duffy.  The  Irish 
Ballads  of  Davis  and  Duffy,  to  be  found  in  a  volume  called  the 
"Spirit  of  the  Nation,"  are  admirable,  and  should  be  studied. 
Beside  the  above  references,  passages  will  be  found  in  Burke's 
Irish  writings  relating  to  the  confiscations  of  the  period  of  James  I, 
Charles  I,  and  Cromwell,  and  to  the  alleged  Massacre  of  1641, 
which  are  marked  by  his  keen  insight  and  deep  political  wisdom. 
They  deserve  attention  and  careful  thought.  Reid's  History  of  the 
Irish  Presbyterians. 

VI. 

For  the  period  between  the  Restoration  and  the  Capitulation 

of  Limerick. 

The  Irish  Staftctes,  1660 — 1692.  The  principal  Acts  passed  by 
King  James's  Irish  Parliament,  of  1689,  will  be  found  in  Davis's 
Patriot  Parliament,  ante.  The  Irish  State  Trials.  That  of  Arch- 
bishop Plunkett  is  the  most  important  for  this  period.  The  charge 
of  Chief  Justice  Keating  is  valuable,  as  showing  the  character  of 
Irish  agrarian  disorder  in  1689-91.  The  Manuscripts  of  the 
Marquis  of  Ormonde.  The  Historical  Manuscripts  Commission. 
Carte  s  Life  of  Ormond,  ante.  Sir  William  Pettfs  Political 
Anato7ny  of  Ireland^  very   valuable.     Lord  Clare?tdo?i's  Letters 


360  Ireland. 

when  Loi'd  Lieutenant  King's  State  of  the  Protestants  of  Ireland. 
Walker^s  Diary  of  the  Siege  of  Deny.  Me'moires  Inedits  de 
Dumoiit  de  Bostaquet.,  very  interesting.  Story's  Impartial  History 
of  the  War  in  Ireland  and  the  Continuation.  Macariae  Excidium. 
The  Abbe  MacGeoghega?i^s  History  of  Ireland.  Mdmoires  de 
Berwick.  Lela?id^s  History,  Book  VI.  and  the  authorities.  The 
work,  as  said  before,  ends  at  the  Treaty  of  Limerick.  Macaulafs 
History  of  E7igland  (the  Irish  chapters),  Vol.  IV.,  Chapter  12  ; 
Vol.  v..  Chapters  14 — 16  ;  Vol.  vi.,  Chapter  17,  and  the  authorities. 
It  would  be  superfluous  to  refer  to  the  learning  and  the  splendour 
of  Macaulay's  narrative.  But  there  are  some  errors  in  his  Irish 
chapters,  especially  in  his  point  of  view,  and  his  account  of  King 
James's  Irish  Parliament  is  very  deceptive.  Leckfs  History  of 
England,  ante,  Vol.  II.,  Chapter  6,  pp.  174 — 196.  The  refutation  of 
Macaulay  is  admirable.  The  Patriot  Par'lianient,  by  Thomas 
Davis,  ante,  very  valuable.  Lord  Wolselefs  Life  of  Marlboi'ough, 
Vol.  II.,  Chapters  62 — 67.  This  is  by  far  the  best  account  of 
Marlborough's  Campaign  in  Ireland. 


VII. 

For  the  period  of  the  Penal  Laws  in  Ireland,  and  up  to  ihei 

Revolutioji  of  1782. 

The  Irish  Statutes,  1692 — 1782-3.  [See  also  the  English 
Declaratory  Act  of  6  George  I,  Chapter  5,  repealed  in  1782,  and 
the  Renunciation  Act  of  23  George  III,  Chapter  28.]  The  Irish 
State  Trials.  [The  only  one  of  importance  is  that  relating  to  the 
proceedings  in  Annesley  and  Sherlock,  17 19,  which  involved  the 
question  of  the  Appellate  Jurisdiction  of  the  Irish  House  of  Lords.] 
The  Irish  Parliame7itary  Debates.  Parts  of  these  have  been  re- 
ported towards  the  close  of  this  period.  O'Conor's  History  of  the 
Irish  Catholics.  Curry's  State  of  the  Irish  Catholics.  Vincent 
Scully  on  the  Penal  Laws.  Howard's  Popery  Cases.  Burke^s 
Tracts  on  the  Popery  Laws,  a  mere  sketch,  but  very  valuable. 
O^Callaghaiis  History  of  the  Irish  Brigade.  The  Last  Colonel  of 
the  I?'ish  Brigade.  This  is  a  short  biography  of  Count  O'Connell, 
an  uncle  of  Daniel  O'Connell.  Interesting  details  about  this 
distinguished  soldier  will  be  found  in  General  Thiebault's  Memoirs. 


Appendix.  361 

Primate  Boulter's  Letters.  Archbishop  Synge^s  Letters.  Swift's 
Tracts  on  Ireland.  Berkeley's  Tracts  on  Ireland.  Burke's  writ- 
ijigs  on  Irelafid.  [All  valuable  in  the  very  highest  degree.] 
Molyneux'  Case  of  Ireland.  Monk  Maso?t's  Authority  and  Con- 
stitution of  the  Irish  Parliament.  Hutchinson' s  Co7nme7'cial  Re- 
straints. Very  valuable.  Caldwell's  Restraints  on  the  Trade  of 
Ireland.  Lord  Mount  Morris's  History  of  the  Irish  Parliament. 
Campbell's  Philosophical  Survey  of  the  South  of  Ireland.  Arthur 
Yoimg's  Tour  in  Ireland,  1776 — 1778,  most  instructive,  interesting 
and  important.  Sir  George  Lewis  o?i  Irish  Disturbances.  Philo- 
sophic and  excellent.  [The  narrative  goes  down  to  1836.]  Flood's 
Life  and  Speeches.  Grattan's  Life  and  Speeches.  Hardy's  Life  of 
Charleinofit.  Barrington's  Rise  and  Fall  of  the  Irish  Nation. 
O'Leary's  Tracts.  HIrlande.,  Sociale,  Politique.,  et  Religieuse, 
by  Gustave  de  Beaumont.  [Very  able  and  full  of  admirable 
research  and  thought,  but  ruled  by  the  ideas  of  a  French  doctrinaire, 
and  not  just  to  the  Irish  landed  gentry.]  O' Flanagan' s  Lives  of  the 
Irish  Chancellors.  A  learned  and  interesting  work.  [The  narrative 
goes  down  to  the  Chancellorship  of  Lord  Plunket.]  Lecky's 
History.,  ante.,  (the  Irish  chapters),  Vol.  Ii.,  Chapter  7 ;  Vol. 
IV.,  Chapters  16,  17.  For  the  general  reader  nothing  more  is 
required.  The  authorities  are  collected  :  the  refutation  of  Mr  Froude 
is  excellent.  Froude's  Two  Chiefs  of  Dunboy  is  a  brilliant  romance, 
that  illustrates  from  the  point  of  view  of  the  author  the  political  and 
social  life  of  this  period,  or  rather  of  the  first  part  of  it,  remarkably 
well.  Ireland  from  the  Siege  of  Limerick  to  the  present  time.,  by 
John  Mitchell.  Written  in  the  spirit  of  an  Irish  rebel  of  1848,  but 
containing  some  valuable  information.  [The  narrative  goes  down 
to  185 1.]  Two  Centuries  of  Irish  History^  1691 — 1870.  Edited  by 
James  Bryce,  M.P,,  written  in  the  spirit  of  Radical  English  Home 
Rule,  but  a  very  valuable  resu7ne  of  events,  well  worth  reading. 


VIII. 

For  the  period  fro  in  the  Revolution  of  \']Zi  to  the  Union. 

The  Irish  Statutes,  1782 — 1800.  The  Act  of  Union,  in  the 
Irish  Parliament,  is  39,  40  George  III,  Chapter  67.  The  Irish 
State  Trials.     These  are  very  numerous  for  this  period.     That  of 


3^2  Ireland. 

Theobald  Wolfe  Tone  possesses  the  most  historical  interest.  The 
Irish  Parliamentary  Debates.  These  are  well  reported  from  1781 
to  1797  ;  there  is  then  a  hiatus  until  the  Debates  on  the  Union. 
These  are  very  remarkable.  See  especially  the  speeches  of 
Castlereagh  and  Clare,  of  Grattan,  Foster,  Saurin,  and  Plunket. 
TJie  Lives  and  Speeches  of  Flood  and  Gi^attan^  ante.  The  Speeches 
of  Cii?'ra7ty  wonderful  specimens  of  advocacy.  Burke's  Correspond- 
ence. Letters  on  Ireland  down  to  his  death,  very  important  and 
valuable.  The  Auckland  Correspondence.  The  Life  of  Theobald 
Wolfe  Tone.  The  Memoirs  of  Theobald  Wolfe  To?ie.  [The  Diary 
is  very  valuable  and  interesting.]  The  Cornwallis  Cor7'espo7idence^ 
most  important  and  instructive,  but  not  just  to  the  real  Irish 
gentry.  The  Castlo'eagh  Cot'respondence,  also  most  important, 
especially  on  the  subject  of  the  Union.  The  Colchester  Papers 
and  Diary.  Buckingham's  Courts  and  Cabinets  of  George  III. 
Madden^ s  United  Irishmeji.,  full  of  research  and  of  valuable  in- 
formation. Memoirs  of  Miles  Byrne^  very  interesting,  HoWs 
Memoirs  of  the  Rebellioit.  Musgrave's  Rebellions  in  Ireland, 
written  in  the  evil  Orange  spirit.  Ivlaxwell's  History  of  the  Re- 
bellion. Gordo7is  Histo7y  of  the  Rebellio7i  of  1798.  By  far  the 
fairest  and  best  account.  Hay's  History  of  the  RebeUion  in 
Wexford.  Sta7i]iope's  Life  of  Pitt.  Pitfs  Speeches.  That  on  the 
Union  should  be  studied,  and  so  should  the  Debates,  on  this 
subject,  in  the  British  Parliament.  Pitt,  by  Lord  Rosebery.  Pitt^ 
by  Goldcuin  S77iith,  in  Three  English  Statesmen.  Broiigha77i^ s 
Statesmen  of  the  Reign  of  George  III.  Moore's  Life  of  Lord 
Edward  Fitzgerald.  M'^Nevi7i^s  Precis  of  Irish  History.  Plow- 
de7ls  Histo7y  of  l7-ela7id  after  the  Union.  [The  narrative  goes 
down  to  1 8 10,  and  expresses  the  views  of  a  loyal,  but  disap- 
pointed Irish  Catholic]  Massefs  Histoyy  of  E7igla7id  (the  Irish 
chapters).  Vol.  II.,  Chapters  24 — 26 ;  Vol.  IV.,  Chapter  38,  written 
from  the  point  of  view  of  an  English  Whig.  Newenham's  State  of 
Ireland.  Killen's  Continuation  of  Reid's  History  of  the  Irish 
Presbyterians.  I77g7'a77i's  Histo7y  of  the  h'ish  U7iio7i.  A  piece  of 
elaborate  paradox,  to  prove  that  the  Union  was  not,  in  any  sense, 
carried  by  corruption.  Leckfs  History  as  a7ite  (the  Irish 
chapters),  Vol.  vi.,  Chapters  24,  25  ;  Vols.  vil.  and  vill.  The 
extra  volumes  are,  perhaps,  the  most  important  and  valuable 
parts   of   this    great   work.      The    correspondence    between    the 


Appendix.  363 

Ministry  in  England  and  the  Irish  Government,  and  the  confi- 
dential reports  sent  to  the  Castle,  from  all  parts  of  Ireland,  during 
the  troubled  years,  from  1792  to  1800,  have  been  collected  from 
original  sources,  and  are  most  instructive  and  interesting.  All 
available  authorities  are  collected  with  the  most  praiseworthy 
industry. 

IX. 

For  the  period  between  the  Union  and  Catholic  Emancipation. 

The  Statutes  of  the  United  Parliament  (Ireland),  1801 — 1829. 
The  Irish  State  Trials.  These  are  also  numerous  for  this  period. 
The  most  remarkable  is  that  of  Robert  Emmett.  Several  of  these 
trials  illustrate  the  extraordinary  powers  of  O'Connell  at  the  Bar. 
The  Parliamentary  Debates  (Ireland).  See  especially  the  speeches 
on  Irish  affairs  of  Pitt,  Fox,  Grattan,  Canning,  Castlereagh,  Lord 
Wellesley,  the  Duke  of  Wellington,  Peel,  Plunket.  The  Cornwallis 
Correspondence^  ante.  The  Castlereagh  Correspondence^  ante.  The 
Colchester  Papers  a7id  Diary ^  ante.  The  Snpplementajy  Despatches 
of  Arthur,  Duke  of  Wellington.  The  papers  on  Ireland  in  1807-8, 
and  again  in  1828-30,  are  of  special  value.  Sir  Robert  Peel,  1788 — 
1827.  From  his  private  correspondence.  Edited  by  Charles 
Stuart  Parker.  This  work  contains  all  the  correspondence  of  Peel 
on  Ireland  when  Chief  Secretary.  Rep07-ts  of  Pa^iiamentary  Com- 
mittees on  Irish  Incomes,  Expenditure  and  Taxation,  181 5 — 1864. 
Evidoice  07i  the  state  of  I?'eland  taken  before  Parliamentary 
Committees  in  1825.  Extremely  important  and  instructive.  Baron 
Fletcher's  Charge  to  the  Grand  Jury  of  Wexford  in  18 14.  A 
remarkable  deliverance  on  the  state  of  Ireland  severely  condemned 
by  Peel.  Stanhope's  Pitt,  ante.  Plowden's  History,  ante.  Lewis 
on  h'ish  Disturbances,  ante.  An  Accoimt  of  Ireland,  by  Edward 
Wakefield.  A  work  of  great  research  and  value,  and  an  admirable 
exposition  of  the  social  and  economic  condition  of  Ireland  in  1812. 
The  Life  of  Canning,  by  Stapleton.  Memoirs  aiid  Correspo7idence 
of  Richard  Marquis  Wellesley,  by  Pearce.  The  Life  of  Plunket,  by 
D.  R.  Plunket.  O'ConnelPs  Life  and  Speeches,  by  John  O'Connell. 
Life  of  O^Connell,  by  Miss  Cusack.  Life  of  O'Connell  (Statesmen 
Series),  by  J.  A.  Hamilton.  Ireland  and  the  Irish,  by  Daniel 
O'Connell.     A  book  quite  unworthy  of  O'Connell.     IVyse^s  History 


3^4  Ireland. 

of  the  Catholic  Association.  Peel  and  O' Connelly  by  Shaw  Lefevre. 
Written  from  the  English  Radical  point  of  view,  but  well  informed 
and  able.  Life  a?id  Ti7nes  of  Lord  Cionciirry,  including  his  personal 
recollections.  Very  interesting.  L-eland^  Past  and  Present^  by  J.  W. 
Croker.  Ireland  since  the  Union,  by  J.  H.  McCarthy.  Peel^  by 
Goldwin  Smith  in  the  Encyclopedia  Britannica.  Very  able,  but 
too  eulogistic.  Lecky's  Leaders  of  Public  Opinion  in  Ireland. 
Rather  immature  in  thought,  but  very  able  and  eloquent.  The 
series  comprises  Swift,  Flood,  Grattan  and  O'Connell.  The  sketch 
of  O'Connell  is  perhaps  the  best. 

X. 

For  the  period  betweeji  1829  and  1868. 

The  Statutes  of  the  United  Parliainent  (Ireland).  TJie  Irish 
State  Trials.  The  regular  series  goes  down  to  1848,  and  is  being 
continued.  Much  the  most  important  of  these  trials  is  that  of 
O'Connell  in  1843-44.  The  trials  of  Smith  O'Brien  and  the  other 
participators  in  the  movement  of  1848  are  not  without  interest. 
The  trials  of  some  of  the  Fenian  prisoners  of  1867-8  have  been 
separately  published.  The  Parliamejitary  Debates  (Ireland).  See 
especially  the  speeches  of  the  Duke  of  Wellington  and  of  Lord  Grey, 
Brougham,  Lyndhurst,  Melbourne,  and  Lansdowne  in  the  House  of 
Lords,  and  of  Peel,  Lord  Palmerston,  Lord  John  Russell,  Disraeli, 
O'Connell,  Smith  O'Brien,  Sheil,  Cobden,  Bright  and  Mr  Glad- 
stone in  the  House  of  Commons.  The  Supplementary  Despatches 
of  the  Duke  of  Welli7igton,  a?ite.  Many  of  the  papers  on  Ireland 
during  this  period  are  important.  The  Report  of  Sir  George 
Nicholls  on  the  Irish  Poor  Law.  Very  important.  The  Report 
of  the  Devon  Cojnmission  and  the  Evidence.  Of  the  greatest 
possible  value  on  the  subject  of  the  Irish  Land.  [The  Parlia- 
mentary Reports  of  Committees  and  Commissions  on  Irish  affairs 
during  this  period  are  extremely  numerous  ;  the  reader  can  only 
be  referred  to  them.]  Selections  from  the  Speeches  and  Despatches 
of  Earl  Riissell  (Ireland).  Recollections  and  Suggesiioiis  of  Earl 
Russell.  Cloticurry' s  Personal  Recollections.,  ante.  These  are  very 
valuable  for  part  of  this  period.  The  Life  of  Thomas  Drummond., 
by  McLennan.     Memoir  of  Earl  Spencer  (Lord  Althorp),  by  Le 


Appendix.  365 

Marchant.  The  Life  of  Lord  Melbourne.  The  Memoir  of  Lord 
Hatherton.  Report  of  the  Parliamentary  Committee  of  the  Loyal 
National  Repeal  Association.  (Well  worth  reading.)  Essays  ott 
Repeal  of  the  Union.  Awarded  prizes  by  the  Loyal  National  Repeal 
Association.  The  Natio7i  Newspaper^  iZ\i — 1848.  Most  interesting, 
as  showing  the  views  of  the  Young  Ireland  party.  The  Spirit  of 
the  Nation.  A  collection  of  Irish  Ballads,  some  very  beautiful, 
written  in  the  same  sense.  The  Irish  Crisis  (Edinburgh  Review, 
Vol.  87,  1848),  written  by  Sir  Charles  Trevelyan.  An  able 
and  fair  account  of  the  Famine  of  1845-6,  written  from  the 
point  of  view  of  an  English  Whig.  A  History  of  the  Great  Irish 
Famine  of  1847,  by  the  Rev.  John  O'Rourke,  P.P.  Written  from 
the  point  of  view  of  an  Irish  Catholic  priest.  The  Irish  Landlord 
since  the  Revolution,  by  the  Rev.  Patrick  Lavelle.  Illustrating 
the  animosity  felt  against  some  Irish  landlords  since  the  Famine. 
Irish  Emigration  and  the  Tenure  of  Irish  Land,  by  Lord 
Dufferin.  Well  worth  reading.  Policy  of  England  towards 
Ireland,  by  Charles  Greville.  Jourfials,  Conversations  a?id  Essays 
relating  to  Ireland,  by  Nassau  Senior.  The  views  of  a  moderate 
Whig,  between  1850  and  i860.  Youjig  Ireland,  by  Charles  Gavan 
Duffy.  Very  valuable  and  interesting.  New  Ireland,  by  A.  M. 
Sullivan.  The  Life  of  Lord  Pahnerston,  by  Sir  H.  L.  Bulwer. 
Contains  some  passages  referring  to  Ireland  that  may  be  read  with 
advantage.  The  Irish  Land,  by  Isaac  Butt.  Ireland  in  1868,  by 
Gerald  Fitzgibbon.  Fifty  Years  of  Concessions  to  Ireland,  by 
Barry  O'Brien.  Irish  Wrongs  and  English  Remedies,  by  Barry 
O'Brien.  These  works  are  written  in  an  anti-English  spirit,  but 
may  be  read  with  profit.  Walpole's  History  of  England.  Moles- 
worth's  History  of  England,  1830 — 1870.  The  Reign  of  Queen 
Victoria,  by  Sir  Rowland  Blennerhassett.  The  parts  of  this  work 
that  relate  to  Ireland  are  interesting  and  valuable. 


INDEX. 


Abercromby,  General,  313 

Aghrim,   Battle  of,    191 

Agricola,   2 

Allen,  Bog  of,  41,   113 

Allen,   Papal  Envoy,    101,  103 

American  War,  The,   234 

Anglican  Church  in  Ireland,  The, 
104,  T16,  117,  130,  132,  136, 
214,     215,    226,    318,    320,    321, 

353 
Anjou,  Henry  of,  Henry  II,  23,  29, 

31 
Annals  of  the  Four  Masters,  16 

Annals,  Irish,  15 

Ascendency,  Protestant,  in  Ireland, 

130,    168,     173,    174,    206,    224, 

305.   3'3.  324.   353 
Aston,  Sir  Arthur,   150 

Athlone,  152,   161 

Athunree,  Battle  of,  34 

Attainder,  Great  Act  of,  in  1689, 184 

Baker,  at  Deny,  181 
Ball,  a  distinguished  Irishman,  347 
Baltinglass,  Lord,   102 
Banim,   Irish  Novelist,  347 
Bantry,  Landing  at,   269 
Bedell,  Archbishop,  214 
Belfast,  218,   260 
Bellahoe,  Battle  of,  78 
Bellingham,  Sir  Edward,    Deputy, 

86,  87 
Benburb,  Battle  of,  145 
Berkeley,    Bishop,    172,    217,   221, 

226,  23t,  243 
Berkeley,  Lord,  of  Stratton,  Viceroy, 

173 


Berwick,  bastard  of  James  II,  186 
Bingham,  President  of  Connaught, 

HI 
Black  Friday,   33 
Black  Rent,  55 
Blount,    Charles,    Lord   Mountjoy, 

112,   114,   123 
Boleyn,  Anne,  70 
Bonaghts  and  Cosherings,   48 
Bonaparte,  161 

Borlase,  John,  Lord  Justice,    137 
Boulter,  Archbishop,  214 
Boyne,  Battle  of,    187 
Breakspeare,  Nicholas,  Pope  Adrian, 

Brehon  Laws,    14,  50,  51 
Brehon  Lawyers,   14,  50,  53,  123 
Brian,  King  of  Ireland,  21 
Brigade,  The  Irish,  207,  290 
Brinkley,  a  distinguished  Irishman, 

347 
Browne,  Archbishop,  76 

Browne,  Bishop,  214 

Browne,  General,  207 

Bruce,  Edward,  34 

Buckinghamshire,    Lord,    Viceroy, 

237 
Burgh,   Hussey,   237 

Burke,    Edmund,    129,     236,     239, 

244.  353 
Bushe,   283 

Butler,     Archer,     a     distinguished 

Irishman,  347 
Butlers,    The,    35,   38,   40,  43,  44, 

57,  69,  71,  78 
Butt,     a    distinguished     Irishman, 

347 


Index, 


367 


Caesar,  19,  20 

Caldwell,  Sir  James,  244 

Camden,  Lord,  Viceroy,  266,  272, 

275 
Cannmg,  297,  353 

Carew,  Sir  Peter,  98 

Carleton,  348 

Carlisle,  Lord,  Viceroy,  238 

Carolan,  18 

Cashel,  Synod  of,  29 

Castlereagh,  281,   283,  293,  297 

Cathal  of  the  Red  Hand,   34 

Catherine,   Queen,  70 

Catholic  Association,  307,  308, 
311 ;  Church  in  Ireland,  131, 
215,  226;  Committee,  261,  296; 
Convention,  265 ;  Emancipation, 
279,  284,  297,  312,  353  ;  Question, 
293,  294,  295,  2C>6,  298,  306 

Catholicism  set  up  m  Ireland,  87 

Cecil,  93 

Ceile,  The,  10,  47,  126 

Celtic,  The  ancient,  Irish  Church, 
6,  7,   12,  48,  49,  74,  75 

Celtic  Irish  genius,  The,   353 

Celtic  Land,  The,  45 

Celts,  passim 

Charlemont,  Lord,   236,  243,   255 

Charles  I,   134,   137,   142,   143 

Charles  the  Great,  32 

Charles  II,  148,  152,  157,  164, 
165,   166 

Charles  V,  70,  77 

Church  in  England,  The,  68 

Church  of  the  Pale,  48,  49,  74,  75, 
91,  105,  116 

Clanricarde,  Earl  of,  80,   142 

Clans,  The  Irish,   i 

Clarendon,   156,   165 

Clarendon,  Viceroy,    176 

Clonmel,   Siege  of,   151 

Clontarf,  Battle  of,  21 

Cnocktue,   Battle  of,  64 

Cogan,  Miles  de,  28 

Commissioners,  Irish,  of  Henry 
VIII,  80 

Confederation  of  Catholics  in  Ire- 
land,   141,   143 

Conn  of  the  Hundred  Battles,  3 


Constabulary,  The  Irish,  304,  326 

Coote,   Eyre,   353 

Cornwallis,  Viceroy,  275,  276,  277, 

282,   293 
Corporate  Reform  in  Ireland,  326 
Coyne  and  Livery,    10,  43 
Cromer,  Archbishop,  76 
Cromwell,  Henry,   157 
Cromwell,    Oliver,    148,    149,    150, 

^5r,   153.    154.   156,    158,  247 
Cromwell,  Thomas,  74,   76 
Crosses,  The  Ancient  Irish,   18 
Curran,  Irish  orator,   347 
Curry,  Irish  Historian,   244 

Daer  Stock  Tenants,   10,   126 

Danes  in  Ireland,  20 

D'Aquila,  Don  Juan,   113 

Davis,  Thomas,  330,  347 

Debt  of  Ireland,   299 

De  Burgh,  work  of,  on  Irish 
Dominicans,   244 

De  Burghs,  The,  33,    35,    64,    79 

Declaration  of  Legislative  Inde- 
pendence of  Ireland,   240 

De  Courcies,  The,  46 

Dermod,  King  of  Leinster,  26,  27, 
28 

Derry,  128,  179,  180,  181,  182; 
Bishop  of,  255 

Desmond,  Gerald,  The  Last  Earl 
of,  97,   10 r,   T04 

Desmond,    The   Geraldines  of,  43 

44.  45.  54'  57.  ^l^  64,  73 
Desmond,  Sir  John  of,  99 
Devereux,  Walter,  Earl  of  Essex,  98 
Devon  Commission,  The,  332,  333 
Dowdal,  Primate,  85 
Doyle,    a    distinguished    Irishman, 

349 
Drogheda,  Synod  of,  25  ;  massacre 

at,   150 
Drummond,  Thomas,  324,  325 
Dublin,  28,   30,   41,  71,    149,   172, 

185,   187,   188,  218 
Dufferin,  Lord,  353 
Duffy,  C.  G.,   330 
Dundalk,    rout    of,    34;   town    of, 

4i»   ^85 


368 


Index. 


Dungannon,  The  Volunteer  Meeting 
at,  239;  The  Baron  of,  91 

Edgeworth,     Maria,     great     Irish 

Novelist,  348 
Edward  I,   36 
Edward  III,  37 
Edward  VI,  84,  86 
Election,  The  Clare,  310 
Elizabeth,  Queen,  89,  99,  112,  115 
Emmett,  Robert,  290 
Encumbered      Estates    Acts,    341, 

34^'  345 
England,  passij?i 

Englishry,  The,  fassim 

Enniskillen,    179,   182 

Eric,  The,  14,   50 

Essex,  The  Earl  of,    112,   175 

Established  Church,  The,  see  An- 
glican Church  in  Ireland 

Eva,  Daughter  of  Dermod,  28 

Eyre,  Jane,  Charlotte  Bronte,  the 
author  of,  348 

Famine  in  Ireland  in  1 740-1,  338, 
note;    in  1S22,  301;  in  1S45-6, 

336,   337.  338,  339 
Felim  the  Lawgiver,  3 
Fenian  Outbreak,  The,  348,   349 
Feredach  the  Just,  3 
Firbolgs,  The,   i 

Fitzgerald,    Irish    Divine    of    emi- 
nence, 347 
Fitzgerald,  Edward,  Lord,  267,  290, 

291 
Fitzgerald,   Maurice,  26 
Fitzgerald,  Vesey,  310,  311 
Fitzgibbon,   John,    Earl    of   Clare, 

259,    265,    266,    272,   273,    276, 

279,   280,  283 
Fitzmaurice,  James,  99,   100,  loi 
Fitzstephen,  Robert,  26,  27 
Fitzwilliam,  Sir   William,  Deputy, 

108 
Fitzwilliam,    Lord,    Viceroy,    265, 

266 
Flood,  Henry,  232,  239,  243,  255 
Fomorians,  The,    i 
Foster,  The  Irish  Speaker,  283 


Fox,  Charles,  239,   293 
Fuidhir  Tenants,   10,  48 

Gal  way,  46,   152 

Gavelkind,   Irish,   9,    11,  51,    124, 

125 

Gaveston,  Viceroy,   37 

George  II,  230 

George  III,  229,  231,  253 

George  IV,  306 

Geraldines,  the,  35,  38,  40,  44, 
70,  71,  100,  loi,  102,  273, 
note 

Ginkle,  General,  190,  191,   193 

Glamorgan,  Lord,  dealings  of,  with 
Charles  I  and  the  Irish  Con- 
federates, 144 

Goldsmith,   Oliver,  244 

Graces,  The,   134,  135,   137 

Grattan,  Henry,  212,  224,  237, 
239,  240,  241,  243,  248,  253, 
257»  276,  283,  293,  297,  306,  311 

Grenville,  Lord,  293 

Grey  Administration,  317,  319, 
321 

Grey,  Lord  de  Wilton,  103 

Grey,  Lord  Leonard,  72,   73,  78 

Gros,   Raymond  Le,  28 

Grouchy,  General,  at  Bantry,  269 

Harcourt,  Lord,  Viceroy,  233,  234 
Hasculf,  28 

Heber,  son  of  Milesius,  2 
Henrietta  Maria,  Queen  of  Charles  I, 

147 
Henry  III,  36 
Henry  VII,  54,  57 
Henry  VIII,  65,  67,    68,    73,    76, 

78,  81 
Heremon,  son  of  Milesius,   2 
Hoche,  General,  269 
Houghers,  The,  228 
Humbert,  General,   276 
Hutcheson,  Francis,  244 
Hutchinson,  Hely,  233,   244 
Hy-Niall,  The,  4,  5,  6,  21,  77,  95 

Inchiquin,  Lord,  141,  147,  151, 
177 


Index. 


369 


Injured    Lady,   Swift's    History  of, 

220 
Interest,  The  English  and  Irish,  in 

Ireland,    38,   62,    8r,    132,     167, 

211,  225,  325 
Invasions,  Danish,  of  Ireland,  20 
Ir,  son  of  Milesius,  2 
Ireland,  passim 

Irish,  The,  an  Aryan  Community,  2 
Irlshry,  The,  passim 

James  I,  31,   32 

James  II,   174,   175,    178,  185 

John,  King,  31,  32 

Jones,  Michael,   147 

Kildare,  Gerald,  Eighth  Earl,  the 
Great,  57,  58,  63,  64,  65; 
Gerald,  the  Ninth  Earl,  65,  66, 
69,  70,  73 ;  Thomas,  Silken,  the 
Tenth  Earl,  70,  71,  72;  Gerald, 
the  Eleventh  Earl,  73,  88,  94, 
102 

Kildare,  The  House  of,  Heads  of 
the  Geraldines,  42 

Kilkenny,  Confederation  of  Catho- 
lics at,  14T ;  Siege  of,  by  Crom- 
well, 150;    Statute  of,   39,  60 

King,  Archbishop,   214 

Kingston,  Lord,   179 

Kinsale,  Siege  and  Battle  of,  114, 
190 

Kirke,  at  Uerry,    182 

Lacy,  General,   207 

Lalor,  John  Finton,   340 

Land,  The  Anglo-Norman,  43 

Land  and  Landed  System  of  Ireland, 
10,  II,  12,  125,  203,  217,  227, 
300,  302,  332,   333,  334 

Lauzun,  General,   190 

Lawrences,  the  two,  353 

Laws,  Early,  of  Ireland,  see  Brehon 
Laws  and  Brehon  Lawyers 

Lecky,    eminent     Irish   Historian, 

347 
Lefroy,  Irish  jurist,  347 

Leinster,  The  Duke  of,  236 

Leix,  45,  86,  87,  88,   112 


Leland,  Irish  Historian,  244 

Letters,  The  Drapier,  by  Swift, 
219,  220 

Limerick,  Siege  of,  189,  190; 
Treaty  of,   193,    194,   202 

Lionel,  Duke  of  Clarence,   37 

Londonderry,  see  Derry 

Lord  of  Ireland,  original  title  of 
King  of  England  in  Ireland,  76 

Louis  XIV,    180 

Lucas,  Charles,  230 

Ludlow,   157 

Lundy,   180 

McCullagh,  distinguished  Irish- 
man,  347 

MacGeoghegan,   244 

McGilpatrick,  80 

MacMurrough,  Art,  34 

Magee,  eminent  Irish  Divine,  Arch- 
bishop,  347 

Maguire,   General,  207 

Mahan,  eminent  writer  on  naval 
warfare,   347 

Malone,  Anthony,  217,  222,  226 

Marlborough,  190 

Maryborough,   88 

Massacre,  alleged,  of  1641,   138 

Maynooth     Castle,      72 ;     College, 

307.   331 
Melbourne    Ministry,     The,     313, 

3^5>  327 
Milesian  Settlement,  The,   2 

Molesworth,   Lord,    244 

Molyneux,   William,  218 

Monarchy,  The  Irish,  8 

Monk,   157 

Monroe,  General,   145 

Montesquieu,  247 

Moore,    17,  347 

Morpeth,    Lord,    Chief   Secretary, 

324 
Mountjoy,  Lord,  Viceroy,   114,   123 

Mulgrave,   Lord,  Viceroy,  324 

Murray,     eminent     Irish     Divine, 

Archbishop,  347 

Napoleon,   20,  274,   290,    291,   294 
National     Education     in     Ireland, 
321,   322,   323 


M.  I. 


370 


Index. 


Niall  of  the  Nine  Hostnges,  4 
Northumberland,   Earl  of,   84 
Nugent,   Field  Marshal,   207 

Oakboys,   The,   '228 

O'Brien,    Chief  of  Thomond,    79 ; 

eminent      Irish      Divine,      347  ; 

Smith,   340 
O 'Byrne,   Tribe  of,   98 
O'CarrolI,   Irish  chief,  69 
O'Connell,  Daniel,    282,   294,  295, 

296.    304.    306,    308,    310,    311, 

313,    317.    318,    319,    111,    327. 

328,  329,  330,  338,  339,  340 
O'Connor,  Chief  ot  Oftaley,  69 
O'Connor,    The    tribe    of    Offaley, 

86,  89,  112 
O'Connor,    Brian,    Chief    of   tribe, 

73,  77,  86,  88,  89 
O'Connor,    Mary,    wife    of    Brian, 

half  sister  of  Surrey's  fair  Geral- 

dine,  73 
O'Conor,  Aedh,  34 
O'Conor,    Charles,    eminent    Irish 

antiquary,   244 
O'Conor   Don,    the,    his   work    on 

the  O'Conors  of  Connaught,  8 
O'Conor,    Roderick,    last    Monarch 

of    Celtic    Ireland,    22,    26,    27, 

29 
O'Conor  Turlogh,  *'  King  with  op- 
position," 22 
Octennial  Bill,  The  Irish,  232 
O'Donnell,  Chief  and  tribe  of,  92, 

93,  94,   109,   no,    III,   113 
O'Donnell,    Chief,    made    Earl    of 

Tyrconnell,  123 
O'Donovan,  eminent    Irish    writer, 

348 
Offaley,    now   the    King's    County, 

45,  65,  84,   87,  88,   112,  206 
O'Moore,  Chief  and  tribe  of,  86 
O'Moore,   Roger,   137 
O'Neill,  Chief  and  tribe  of,  4,  57, 

63,   109 
O'Neill,    Conn,    Earl    of    Tyrone, 

77.  78,  79'  91 
O'Neill,  Donald,   34 

O'Neill,    Hugh,    Earl    of    Tyrone, 


105,  109,    no.    III,    112,    113, 
114,  123,  126 

O'Neill,    Hugh,    defends    Clonmel 

and  Limerick,    151,   152 
O'Neill,  Owen  Roe,  140,  145,  146, 

147,   148 
O'Neill,  Phelim,   138 
O'Neill,  Shane,  92,  93,  94,  95,  96 
O'Neill,  Miss,  famous  Irish  actress, 

348    . 
Orangeism    and    Orange   societies, 

268,  292,  297,  309,   311,  324 

Organisation  of  ancient  Irish  so- 
ciety,   10,   II,   12 

Ormond,  Lords  and  Earls  of,  44, 
45.   54.  63,  99,   103 

Ormond,  Earl  of  and  Duke,  Vice- 
roy, 144,  146,  147,  148,  151, 
152,    165,    170,    172 

O'Ruarc,  Chief,   26 

O'SuUivan,    eminent    Irish    writer, 

348 
O'Toole,  Tribe  of,  98 

Pale,  The  Irish,  30,  32,  37,  40, 
41,  42,   47,    50,  53,    55,  91,  98, 

115 

Parliament,  The  English  and  Bri- 
tish, 55,  137,  201,  211,  237, 
241 ;  The  Imperial  or  United, 
293>  313,  314;  The  Long,  137, 
139,  184;  The  Irish,  41,  53,  60, 
79,  90,  97,  107,  132,  166,  200, 
212,  224,  225,  231,  233,  234, 
239,  254,  255,  262,  263,  279; 
Irish,  of  1689,    183 

Parsons,     William,    Lord    Justice, 

137 
Patrick,  Saint,  4 

Peace  of  1646,  145 

Peel,  304,  305,  312,  314,  321,  327, 

3^9'  330.  331.  337 
Pelham,  stern  soldier  in  Desmond 

War,   103 
Penal  Code,  The   Irish,    203,    204, 

205,  207,   209 
Perrin,  Irish  Jurist,  377 
Perrott,    Sir    John,    Deputy,     100, 

106,  108 


T7idex, 


371 


Petty,  Dr,   155,   175,  247 

Philipstovvn,  88 

Pitt,  the  first,  229 

Pitt,    the    second,    253,    258,    266, 

277,    278,    279,    280,    281,    283, 

285,  286,  293,  353 
Plantation  of  Ulster,  The,  127,  128 
Plunket,  Irish  orator  and  statesman, 

283,  306 
Plunkett,  Oliver,    173 
Poetry,  Ancient  Irish,   16 
Pole,   Reginald,  88 
Poor  Law  for  Ireland,  327 
Popes  connected  with  Irish  affairs, 

25,  48,  61,  77,  88,  97,  loi,  276 
Portland,   Duke  of,   239,  240 
Poynings,    Sir     Edward,     Deputy, 

58,  60,  61 
Poynings'   Law,  61,   97,    135,    167, 

185,  213,   238,   239,  240,   241 
Presbyterian,   The,   Church  in  Ire- 
land, 298 
Presbyterians,   Irish,   212 
Presidents  in  Ireland,  97 
Preston,  General,  140,    146 

Queen  Victoria,  visit  to  Ireland  in 

1849.   341 
Queen's  Colleges,  331 

Querist,  The,  by  Berkeley,   221 

Rebellion  of  1798,  274,  275,   276 
Reform  Bill  of  Flood,  256 
Reform  of  1832,  Irish,  317 
Reformation   in    Ireland,    74,     84, 

85,  90 
Regency  Question  in  1789,   256 
Relaxation  of  the  Penal  Code,  242, 

Renunciation  Act,  The,  253 
Repeal   of    the    Union    movement, 

317,  328,  329 
Restrictions    on     Irish    commerce, 

172,  211 
Revolution,  The  French,  effects  of, 

on  Ireland,  259,  261 
Revolution  of  1782,  242,  247 
Richard  II,  37 
Richelieu,   161 


Riuuccini,  Papal  Nuncio,  145,  146, 

147,   148 
Rising  of  1641,   138 
Roberts,  Lord,   353 
Round  Towers,  The  Irish,   r8 
Russell,  eminent  Irish  Divine,  347 
Russell,  Lord  John,  337 

Saer  Stock  Tenants,  The,   10,   126 
St    Leger,    Deputy,    Sir    Anthony, 

80,  84 
St  Ruth,  General,   191,   192 
Salisbury,  John  of,   25 
Salmon,  eminent  Irish  Divine,  347 
Sanders,  Papal  Envoy,   loi,   103 
Sarsfield,     General     Patrick,     186, 

189,   191,   192 
Saurin,  Irish  Jurist,  283,   347 
Schomberg,   185,   186,   187,    191 
Schools,    The   Charter,    223;    The 

National,  322 
Septs,  The  Irish,   n 
Settlement,  Acts  of,  168,  174,  183 
Settlement  of  1782,  The,  250 
Shell,  Irish  orator,   347 
Short  View  of  Ireland,  by  Swift,  220 
Sidney,    Sir    Henry,    Deputy,    92, 

97,   100 
Sidney,   Lord,  Viceroy,  201,  232 
Simple  Repeal,  253 
Skeffington,  Deputy,  69,   72 
Smervvick,  Massacre  at,    103 
Smith,   Adam,   247 
Somerset,  Protector,  84 
Stanley,  Mr,  Chief  Secretary,  317 
Steelboys,  The,   228 
Sterne,  Laurence,  347 
Stone,  Archbishop,  214,   226 
Strafford,  Viceroy,   135,    136,    137 
Strongbow,  27,  30 
Stuart,   Mary,  93,   100 
Subjection,     Catholic,     139,      161, 

169,   174,  224,  353 
Sullivan,  eminent    Irish  antiquary, 

348 
Supremacy,  Oath  of,  90,    131 
Surrey,  Lord  Deputy,  66,  67,   68 
Sussex,     Thomas    Radcliff,    Lord, 

Viceroy,  88,  92 


372 


Index. 


Swift,   172,  214,  217,   219,   243 
Synge,  Archbishop,  214 

Tanist  Succession,  9,  51,   124,   125 
Tenant  Right,   Irish,  344 
Tilly,   General,  161 
Tirlogh,   Lenagh,   96,    109 
Tithe   in    Ireland,   215,    257,    318, 

325 

Tone,  Theobald  Wolfe,  260,  261, 
268,  277 

Townshend,  George,  Lord,  Viceroy, 
232 

Tribes,  The  Irish,   11,  12 

Trinity  College,  The  University  of 
Dublin,   117,   171,  245,   331 

Tuatha-na-Danaans,  2 

Tudor,  Mary,  87 

Tyrconnell,  Earl  of,  see  O'Donnell 

Tyrconnell,  Richard  Talbot,  Com- 
mander in  Chief  and  Deputy  in 
Ireland,   176,    177,   183,   192 

Undertakers,  The,  in  Ireland,  106, 

127,   225 
Union,  Cromwell  precursor  of,  157, 

229,    277,    278,    279,    280,    281, 

284,   2S9,  3:4,  327 
Union  of  Hearts  with  England,  a 

real,  354 


United    Irishmen,   The,    260,    261, 
262,   266,  267,  270,  275 

Veto,  The,  294,   306,  307  _ 
Viceroys   of    Ireland,  passim,    and 

see  under  names  set  forth 
Victoria,  see  Queen  Victoria 
Volunteers,  The  Irish,  237,  239,  255 

Walker,  at  siege  of  Derry,   181 
Warner,  value  of  his  history,  244 
Waterford,   27,   28,    151 
Waterloo,  Battle  of,  291 
Wellesley,  Sir  Arthur,  304,   353 
Wellesley,  Lord,  Viceroy,  310 
Wellington,  Duke  of,   312 
Wexford,  26,  28;  massacre  at,   150 
Whiteboy    Movement,    The    Irish, 

228,   229,  302,  318,   338 
Whiteside,   Irish  orator,  347 
William    III,    178,    iSo,    186,    188, 

189,  201,   353 
Wings,   The,   309 
Wolseley,  Lord,   183,  353 
Wolsey,  Cardinal,  dd,  69,  70 

Yellow  Ford,  Battle  of,    in 
York,  Duke  of,   165 
Young,  Arthur,  224,   228 
Young  Ireland  Parly,   330 


camukidge:   printed  by  j.  and  c.  f.  ci.av,  at  the  university  VRKSS, 


?   ?     fe  ?  1   i  S-  J.  ^.^  ?  $ 


JV 


'VAK  li>: 


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